Touch of Apollo
by The Blue Raven
Summary: Sam is having disturbing visions that she comes to believe may foretell the future. Not having much experience with prophesying, she goes to Jonas Quinn for advice on how to prevent impending disaster. VERY mild SamJack, JanetJonas
1. Chapter 1

**Touch of Apollo**

Summary: Sam is having disturbing visions that she comes to believe may foretell the future. Not having much experience with prophesying, she turns to Jonas Quinn for advice on how to prevent impending disaster.

Rating: PG 13

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just enjoy getting inside of their heads from time to time...

Author's Note: This idea's one I've been playing around with for some time now but never got around to setting down on paper (Jonas withdrawal, you know). All it took was one mention of Jonas in an ep and a trailer of Sam hallucinating and I suddenly couldn't resist the impulse to start it (Black Hawk's Snow helped wake up my Jonas muse, too. thanks, sister). 

Another Author's Note: By way of explanation, Apollo was, among other things, the god of Prophecy. Damned vindictive as well. He once cursed a priestess of his who had displeased him with the ability to see the future, but only horrible catastrophes. Further, as part of this curse, no one would ever believe anything she foretold. Eventually she was driven completely mad by this. Now you know where the title comes from... 

**Chapter 1**

"My, God, Sam! What happened here?" Daniel gasped, rushing into the temple. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Teal'c lying face-down on the ground.

Sam watched herself step over the Jaffa with a faint smile, approaching Daniel. "Bow to your god," she ordered in a voice not her own. "On your knees."

  
Daniel's eyes widened. "Sam, don't do this. I know you're in there."

"Nothing of the host remains, insolent boy." She raised her ribbon-device, firing a searing burst of heat at him. "On your knees!" she ordered.

"Sam!" he gasped, dropping to the floor. "Don't!"

Her eyes narrowed. "You are not worthy even to serve. Except perhaps as an example." With these words, she raised the ribbon-device again, smiling as Daniel howled in pain. Her smiled faded as she felt cold metal against her temple.

"Let him go, Sam," Jack ordered in a harsh voice.

"O'Neill. I thought my Jaffa had killed you," she said, not releasing Daniel from his torture.

"You have Sam's memories. You should know I'm a hard man to kill. You should also know that I _will_ kill you if you don't let Daniel go."

"I do have the host's memories. And so I know that you will kill me anyway." With these words, she turned towards, Jack, her side-arm in her free hand. She pressed it to her stomach. "We die together, our love."

***

Sam woke screaming, but it was the commotion in her room rather than her own screams that roused her. There was a female MP shaking her awake as other MPs scanned the room with their eyes, murmuring uneasily.

She found her voice, glad for the darkness because she was blushing. Not again… "It's okay. There's nothing here."

"You were screaming," the female MP said, her eyes wide and uncertain.

"It's okay, Airman Collins," Sam assured her, reading the girl's name-tag. 

An E-2, she must have been fresh out of technical school, probably not even old enough to drink. Definitely not old enough for life at the SGC. Sam could read the fear in her eyes, fear echoed by many of the MPs warily regarding her. 'Foothold situation', the phrase that every last member of the SGC had been trained to fear more than 'nuclear Armageddon'.  Of course, it _was_ worse, even if most people never could, and mercifully never would, understand why.

"Go back to your patrol," Sam ordered brusquely. 

"The doctor on call, said--"

Sam moaned softly, raising a hand to forestall her. "Fine," she said, rising. "I'll got the infirmary. The rest of you get back to work!" she snapped, glaring at them and at the medics who had just arrived. "Well?" she demanded of them. "Let's go already." Shaking her head, she swept past them and stalked towards the infirmary.

***

"Big ones out of little ones, Janet!"  Sam protested the next morning. "You can't take me off active duty for a few sleepless nights!"

"It's been more than a few, Sam, and you know it. Besides, this is the second time this week you've woken up screaming."

Not exactly true, since she had also woken up more than once screaming into her pillow, but Sam wasn't about to point that out. "They're just nightmares," she protested.

"I don't care, Sam," Janet said firmly. "My official diagnosis is overwork. I'm putting you on a week's medical leave." She held up her hand as Sam opened her mouth. "I've already discussed this with the General. He agrees with me. They've all noticed that you haven't been sleeping, Sam. Hell, Jack came to me before you did and Daniel not long after. Even Teal'c's worried."

"There's nothing _to_ worry about!"

"Maybe not, but I'd feel better being safe. Now, all your tests are coming back normal, so I see no reason for you to stay on base if you'd rather not. In fact, I'd recommend against it. A change of scenery will do you good."

Sam shook her head in frustration. "What did you tell the General?"

"Insomnia. I saw no reason to mention the nightmares since all of your tests are normal."

"If they're all normal, then there's nothing wrong."

"I beg to differ. And that's an informed medical opinion, by the way. The last time I saw nightmares this bad…" She caught herself short. "Well, let's just say that it isn't exactly an indicator of overall good health. You are exhausted, Sam, physically _and_ emotionally. You will _rest_ or I will enforce it. That's final."

She started to protest, then changed her mind. Janet was giving her that look that only a mother and a doctor _could_ give someone. Sighing, she held up her hands in defeat. "Okay. So I guess it won't kill me to spend a few days in my own home instead of on base."

"That's the spirit." Janet smiled at her. "And any time you want to join Cassie and I for supper, you're more than welcome to."

"Thanks, Janet." Sam sighed and rose. "I guess I'd better go tell Colonel O'Neill…"

Janet smiled reassuringly. "Oh, I asked the General to talk to him."

"Thanks." 

Sam smiled as she left the infirmary, faintly reassured. Jack's temper was whimsical at the best of times, even without depriving him of his second in command. Reflecting on his probably reaction to her week off, Sam found herself thinking about Janet's words, that Jack had gone to the Doctor before Sam herself had. Just like Jack to not let anything get past him, but she still wished that he had gone to her instead.

"Carter!" the object of her reflections hailed her as she walked to her room to get her things.

"Sir." She stopped and turned to face him, studying his expression and posture for clues as to his mood. That behavior had become instinctive over the years and was always very useful. 

He regarded her with ill-concealed worry. "You feeling okay, Carter?"

"Yes, sir. Just insomnia, sir."

"Insomnia, huh?" he asked, gesturing for her to continue walking.

"That's what Janet says," Sam told him, turning and resuming her interrupted trip and wondering at his tone of voice. 

She was not even slightly surprised when he followed her to her quarters, knowing that he would probably see her topside just to make sure that she went home instead of hiding herself away in the lab for the week. What surprised her was that he did not speak as they walked, not even acknowledging a handful of greetings from others they passed. That was unusual from him for any number of reasons and it unsettled her. He only got that quiet when he was thinking about something.  Hard.

"Need help packing?" he asked as he followed her into her quarters.

"No, sir. I don't have much here that I need." She grabbed her overnight back and began piling things in. "Most of my stuff is at the house."

"How long has it been since you've been at home anyway?" he asked.

"Don't know. A few weeks." She shrugged. Time had a habit of getting away from a person at the SGC, between the lack of natural light and the constant off-world trips to planets with radically different nights and days.

"Six of them, actually," he announced flatly, dropping onto her bed and watching her pack.

She froze. Even with her back to him, she could feel his eyes boring into her. "Six?" she repeated, swallowing hard and struggling to master her paranoia. It was as if he _knew_ something…

"That's right. Unless you've been taking off without signing out."

"You've been checking up on me?" she asked, not particularly surprised and actually, unaccountably, relieved that that was all it was.

"CO takes care of the troops under his command," he pointed out. "General tells me that you haven't been getting much sleep? Stress-related fatigue?"

"That's what Janet said." Sam shrugged. "She seems to think that having nothing to do will help the insomnia."

"Just insomnia, then?" Jack asked quietly.

She spun to face him. "That's right, sir," she told him cautiously, her eyes searching his face. Poker-face, of course. He always played close to the chest, even with those he trusted.

"Funny. That's _not what Teal'c says."_

"Teal'c?" she repeated, frowning uncertainly.

"Yeah, you know. Big guy, doesn't sleep…" 

"What about him?" she asked, ignoring the sarcasm. 

"He said you were having some pretty nasty dreams last off-world trip."

Sam closed her eyes. Off-world trips… The one time that she could not hide such things from her team-mates. Tents were not the best insulators of sound to begin with, and when one of your comrades did not require sleep, there were no nighttime secrets off-world...

"Did he?" she asked cautiously.

His concerned expression was instantly by an irritated one. "As a matter of fact, Carter, he _did_. So did last night's Duty Officer."

She sighed and dropped her overnight bag, sitting on the bed next to him. "So, I've been having bad dreams. It's no big deal." She shrugged. "Janet says all the tests are coming back normal. I'm fine. Not drugged, not infested, not possessed, just having bad dreams…"

"Want to talk about them?" he asked.

"I don't remember them," she lied.

"Like hell you don't," he answered flatly. "You just don't want to talk about it."

Sam blinked. "What makes you think that?"

"The fact that you get secretive and defensive every time it's brought up."

She snorted softly. "Maybe it's just embarrassing to be a grown woman losing sleep over a few bad dreams."

"I don't buy it, Sam. I know you too well."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it, sir."

"I can't order you to, but I'm here if you change your mind about talking."

"I won't."

"Does Janet know what you've been dreaming about?" he asked abruptly.

Startled by the question, she answered automatically, "No."

"I didn't think so."

"What?" she asked, genuinely confused by the comment.

He shrugged. "I just doubted she'd have let you off base if she knew."

Sam closed her eyes again and made a mental note to have a long talk with Teal'c. "How much did he hear?"

"More than the MPs, fortunately." Jack shrugged. "'Bow to your god' ring any bells?"

She nodded weakly.

"How long has this been going on, Carter?"

"Too long." She shrugged. "A few weeks, I guess."

"Want to talk about it?"

"I really don't remember much _to_ talk about, sir, to tell you the truth. Just… flashes.  Fighting, watching myself kill him…" She trailed off, unable to believe that she had added that part. To her surprise, Jack did not look at all taken aback.

"And you are _positive you aren't under any kind of alien control?" he asked carefully._

Sam shook her head. "I've been controlled more than once, sir, in more than one ways. I'd know, I think, at least on some level." She shrugged. "I can always tell my dreams from Jolinar's…"

"And I'm guessing these aren't hers?"

"No. The feeling I get… in the dreams, it's almost like when I was possessed by that computer program, like I'm trapped and screaming to get out. But at the same time, I'm… _there_. It's more immediate. Jolinar's control wasn't like that, and her memories are… well, even if I believed that she could have done something like that, it's you guys in the dreams and these are _not_ her memories." She shrugged, aware that he had gotten her to say far more than she had intended to about the dreams. "That much I know. Beyond that… I have to think that Janet might be right. It's been awhile since I've had any real down-time. Maybe it is just stress and subconscious fears…"

"Maybe." He nodded faintly. "Look, I've already made Teal'c promise not to share what he overheard, and I promise not to either unless I have a damned good reason for it."

"As in, if I start acting like a Gua'old, you'll assume I _am_ one?" she asked, faintly amused that he had bothered to qualify the statement at all. They all knew the score when it came to these matters, and none of them would readily have ignored warning signs, even in each other.

"More or less." He shrugged. "You still coming over tonight?"

She frowned faintly at the request before remembering that she had, in fact, promised to join him and the others at his place to watch the hockey game. Rest and relaxation, knocking back a few suds with her friends. Janet could not object to that even if they _were_ her team-mates.

"You bet." She grinned and nodded in spite of the fact that she was not overly fond of hockey. Sometimes it was just nice to immerse one's self in the mundane for a few hours. Just what the Doctor had ordered in this case.

"Great. See you there. Walk you to your car?" he offered.

She chuckled and shook her head, retrieving her bag. "I knew you were going to say that."

"Reading minds now, Carter?" he asked with a grin. "Careful not to do that around Doc Frasier or she'll insist on more tests…"

She smiled and shook her head. Jack joked frequently about Janet's fondness for running tests and poking people with needles, but he was genuinely fond of her, as all members of the SGC were.

They walked in comfortable silence, and Jack saw Sam as far as her car, watching her pull out of the lot before returning to the base. 

"If Carter signs back in between now and this time next week, I want to know about it," he told the desk-guard. 

"Yes, Colonel," he answered, making a quick  notation to that effect.

"Thanks," he sighed, shaking his head and starting for his office where a stack of paperwork awaited his attention.

***

Jonas sighed and rubbed his forehead, putting his pen down and closing his eyes. 

"Sir?" his secretary asked, regarding him with concern.

"You know what I miss most about saving the universe, Rebecca?" he asked, smiling reassuringly at her.

"What, sir?" she asked, frowning uncertainly.

"The fact that someone else handled most of the paperwork," he told her, grinning. "Could you make me a pot of tea, please?"

"Of course, sir." She nodded and rose from her desk, leaving the room.

"I wish she'd stop calling me that," Jonas sighed when the girl was gone. Of course, it was an improvement over 'Representative Quinn', still...

He gasped as his vision started to swim, wondering what vision he was to be visited with this time. They had returned not long after he had left the SGC, a fact that he had not shared with anyone. It was useful in diplomacy to know what objections others were going to raise before they raised them. And, generally, the visions were not particularly troubling in content. 

He still disliked them, though, especially given the results of his most recent physical. The abnormal mass in his brain was back and it was growing... Cutting open his head had not changed his genetic code and it was that code that caused the changes in his brain. Even before Nirrti had interfered with that, he had seen things and made connections that others could not. The visions were just an extension of that, the next natural step in his evolution.

Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and let the vision wash over him.

_"Sam, hey! What are you doing here? Everything okay?"_

_"I was hoping we could talk..."_

_"Always, yeah. Here, let's go into my study. Is everything okay?"_

_  
"I don't know. I don't think so..."_

Jonas frowned, rubbing his eyes and turning the vision over in his head. Why would Sam come to Kellwona to talk to him? About something important, too, judging by her tone. She had not looked well, either. He shook his head, troubled, and tried to decide if he should visit her first.

"Your tea, sir. Is everything okay?" Rebecca asked, setting the tray on his desk.

"Fine, Rebecca. Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir." She paused. "I have a message from your doctor, sir..."

"No," Jonas said, shaking his head. Rebecca did not know what the doctor wanted Jonas to have done and he preferred to keep it that way. "Tell him the answer is still no." 

He was not about to let anyone cut him open, not again. Whatever the growth in his brain did to him eventually, it was a part of who he was now, and he would not let anyone take that away. The sense of loss he had felt on awakening without that ability to _see_... Never again.

"Yes, sir." She nodded. "I'll inform him."

"Oh, and leave orders with the butlers and maids that if one Major Samantha Carter calls, she's to be admitted immediately and I'm to be informed the instant she arrives no matter what I'm doing at the time."

"Yes, sir." She nodded again.

"And after that, why don't you take the rest of the day off," he suggested. "I think I'm about done with paperwork today." He needed to meditate, to see if he could tease anything more out of the vision.

"If you're sure, sir."

"I am. Say hi to Isaac for me," he added as she left. 

Sighing and shaking his head, Jonas rose and poured himself a cup of tea, leaving the office for the sanctuary of his bedroom.__


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Eighteen days," Janet told Jack. "You had just returned from that mission to P3X-798."

"Delphi." Jack sighed and nodded. "Well, _that_ was enough to give anyone nightmares." At her questioning look, he explained, "We were Apollo's prisoner for almost a week." Apollo was a minor-league Gua'old, one who had not even come to the attention of Anubis or the System Lords yet, a fact which did not make him any less evil or oppressive than his fellow Gua'old. "There were a lot of other prisoners in the holding cells, too. They were all in bad shape, but most of them had no real value to him. He just wanted to see him suffer." 

According to what little Intel they had been able to garner from the other prisoners, Apollo had been hiding out on Delphi for years, along with another Gua'old who no one seemed to know anything about. By all accounts, life on Delphi was idyllic. Unless you happened to be one of the unfortunates confined to its prison camps. Those men and women were underfed, overworked, and denied all but the most basic necessities of life. It was obvious that Apollo and his Jaffa, did not consider dignity to be among those.

He shook his head before continuing. "He interrogated all of us which, according to the other prisoners, was pretty rare. Pretty nasty stuff all around. I can't tell you what he did to the others, but he tortured me..."

Janet nodded. She had patched them up after that abortive mission. The entire party had born cuts and bruises, none too serious although all had spent considerable time talking to the base psychiatric team. Sam had been scraped and contused and running a low-grade fever. That had passed within a few hours and there had been no other signs of infection, so Janet had released her and simply kept a close eye on her for the next few days. And, except for the nightmares, Sam _was_ fine, perfectly healthy. Even the psychologists agreed on that.

But the nightmares were troubling to her _and_ the psychologists. Janet had seen nightmares that severe only once before, in Jonas Quinn shortly before he had started suffering from a series of visions which could easily have ended in his death. Of course, Jonas was different. Sam had not been subject to Nirrti's tampering on nearly the same level and what damage had been done to her had been almost immediately corrected. Besides, there was no indication that Sam's nightmares were prophetic. She could not even remember them...

"You think that's what triggered her nightmares, then?" Janet asked.

"Maybe." Jack shrugged. "She's been through worse without getting nightmares. Well, nightmares that we _know about," he amended. "But it __could be what's causing them, yeah."_

"She's been under a lot of other strains as well, of course," Janet said. "It's possible that mission was just the straw that broke the camel's back." She looked up as an airman entered. "Yes?"

"Uh, Colonel O'Neill wished to be informed if Major Carter returned to the base this week."

Jack shook his head. "Just like her," he muttered. "Thanks, airman." He glanced at Janet. "We can finish this later. I'm going to go drag her kicking and screaming from her lab."

"Good idea. Thanks, Colonel." Janet smiled and nodded at him, sighing as he left. It was indeed just like Sam to ignore a Doctor's order to take time off and come back to work. Too much time around Jack O'Neill, she reflected with a grin.

***

Work was actually the last thing on Sam's mind when she returned to the SGC that morning. She was, among other things, too exhausted to work. The dreams had returned in full force last night, and she remembered more than she had yet about them. Right down to putting a bullet into her Commanding Officer's chest three seconds before being shot in the head by him...

She signed in and headed straight for the infirmary. 

"Sam," Janet greeted her with obvious surprise. So Sam had not come back to work, but to talk to her. That was immensely troubling. "Are you okay? What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping I could get some sleeping pills or something for a few days," Sam told her. 

"Uh, well, sure." Janet nodded immediately, pulling a prescription pad from her lab coat. "One pill a night," she told Sam, writing out a prescription for Ambien. "I'll also give you a few Xanax for any daytime anxiety you might feel, and I'd like you to make another appointment with Doctor Mackenzie," she added, writing. 

"Will that help?" Sam asked. 

"It can't hurt," Janet pointed out gently. "How was your evening with the Colonel?"

Sam smiled faintly, wondering if Janet had been checking up on her or if the Colonel had. "It was nice. I don't think evil aliens or plots for galactic domination came up once."

"Well, that _must_ have made for a nice change." She grinned at her friend, handing over the prescriptions. "What else do you plan on doing with your down time?"

"I don't know." Sam shrugged. "Get some gardening done, maybe."

"Sam, you have a brown thumb," Janet pointed out, grinning. She had seen her friend's attempts to garden and it was a wonder that the front lawn had ever recovered. Sam _did try, but her talents definitely lay in another direction._

"Yeah, guess I do. Maybe I'll catch up on some reading."  
  


"Physics journals?"

"Maybe..."

"Maybe you could go fishing with me," a new voice contributed.

Sam turned to see Jack, lounging indolently against the entrance to the infirmary. "Sir..."

"Heard you couldn't stay away," he told her, shrugging. "Miss me that much?" he asked, grinning.

She smiled faintly, more amused by his words than she was by the fact that he had obviously been keeping tabs on her. As her CO, that was his prerogative, of course, but it was still annoying.

"Sam and I were just discussing her case, sir," Janet provided. "I think she was just going."

"Well, I need to run to the base pharmacy, first," Sam pointed out, glancing down at the sheets of paper in her hand. 

"I'll walk with you," Jack offered.

"Oh, sir, that's really not necessary," she assured him. 

"Hey, I don't mind," he answered. Taking her arm and nodding to Janet, she steered her from the infirmary before she could protest. "With you out of action, SG-1 doesn't have much to do," he explained as they walked. "Teal'c is visiting his son and Daniel's up to his elbows in artifacts." 

She smiled faintly. "And you, sir?"

"Me? I finished all my paperwork last night, which means I have some time off, too. Want to come fishing?" he offered again.

"Oh, sir, I don't..." She hesitated. Excuses were getting harder to find. 

"Your loss," he answered, shrugging. Maybe now was not the time to have her too far away from the SGC, and Janet, anyway. "Offer stands."

"Thank you, sir," she answered, smiling gratefully at him. 

There was a time when she had been totally unsure of where she stood with him, a time when her status as a female and a scientist had left her as something less than an object of respect in his eyes. That was no longer the case, as his behavior and invitation showed. For that alone, she was grateful. Jack O'Neill was, without doubt, the best CO she had ever been privileged to serve under and his respect meant worlds to her. More than that, although she would never have confessed it, his _friendship_ was important to her, in ways she could not have described. 

"One of these days, Carter, I am going to drag you to my lake kicking and screaming," he informed her, amusement over the running joke that was his habit of inviting her to fish and her habit of making excuses not to coloring his voice.

"One of these days, sir, you won't _have_ to drag me," she answered without thinking. She flushed and bowed her head, wondering if the response had been out of line. Or, rather, _over_ a certain line that both were exceedingly careful never to cross...

"That's the spirit," he answered, pretending not to notice her discomfiture. It did not prevent him from feeling a little pang of regret over what could not be, but the regulations were the regulations and he was unwilling to risk her career by violating them. _He_, on the other hand, would have to retire eventually, and maybe then...

Sam smiled faintly at him, walking up to the pharmacy counter and presenting her prescriptions.

"It'll be about twenty minutes, ma'am," the pharmacy tech told her after glancing at the papers. Sleeping pills and nerve pills were probably the most common prescriptions he processed since his arrival at the SGC, and they always kept both in abundance. 

"Thanks." 

"Want to grab a cup of coffee?" Jack offered. 

She smiled faintly at him, nodding. "I'd like that, sir."

"Great. Come on," he said, taking her arm and steering her towards the cafeteria. 

***

Sam sipped at her coffee in relative silence, enjoying the company of her commanding officer and doing her best to shake off her uneasy feeling over the dreams. They were only dreams, she told herself firmly, although part of her mind insisted that they were something else entirely. She had read her Greek mythology in high school; she knew that Apollo was _the_ god associated with prophecy. Could those awful dreams actually be prophetic? 

It would never even have occurred to her if it had not been for the fact that there was a period of several hours during her 'interrogation' that she could not for the life of her remember. What if he had done something to her, as Nirrti had to Jonas?

Jonas... 

If anyone could tell the difference between simple nightmares and actual visions of the future, it would be Jonas Quinn, who had firsthand experience with both. It _had_ been a long time since she had seen the young Kelwonan, and she missed him anyways. Maybe a visit to his planet was in order. And she _did have the down-time for it. Surely neither the Colonel nor the General could object to her visiting an old friend in that free time, even if the old friend in question was off-world. They __all had friends and family off-world, after all, and they visited them as often as time allowed._

She nodded to herself, staring into her coffee. Jonas could at least tell her what a vision felt like, make a reasonable guess as to whether or not that was what she was suffering. She felt a little guilty that she had not thought about visiting him before now, but shook that off. She had been busy and Jonas, no doubt, had been _twice_ as busy, picking up the pieces after a planet-wide war and trying to establish peace between three nations that had been at war with one another for time immemorial. That could hardly leave much time for social calls. Hopefully by now things were settling down enough for him to be easily able to see her.

"Penny for your thoughts, Carter?"

She looked up, startled. She had almost forgotten that she was not alone at the table. "Oh, I was just thinking of what I'm going to do with my down-time," she answered honestly. "I thought maybe I'd drop in on Jonas, see how he's doing..."

"Jonas?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow and regarding her curiously. 

Sam and Jonas had always been close, and that left him feeling something he had no right to: jealousy. It was an ugly emotion under the best of circumstances, and no CO had a right to feel it where a subordinate was concerned. It clouded judgments and made impartiality difficult. It was the reason that relationships with people under your command were not allowed. Still, Sam had never shown _that kind of affection for Jonas before, and Jack honestly did like the young man._

"It's been awhile," Sam answered shrugging and wondering at the emotions flashing across his eyes in spite of his obvious effort not to let them show. "Not like I have many friends on _this_ planet," she added, grinning at him. 

"Yeah. Guess for that you'd have to get off-base once in awhile," he answered, glancing down at his watch. "Your prescriptions should be done."

"They'll hold them. I think I'd like another cup of coffee," she told him, enjoying the opportunity to spend time with him that was not devoted to work.  

"Okay," he said, pleased. Rising and grabbing the two empty cups, he wandered off to get more.

***

Hammond had been a little startled by Sam's request to visit Jonas, but he granted it readily enough after a few moments consultation with Janet. Sam had been faintly annoyed by that precaution, but she could not fault him for it, either. He was responsible for the physical and mental well-being of every man and woman on the base, after all, and he could hardly afford to take chances with one he knew for a fact to be suffering the effects of extreme stress. 

Jack saw her as far as the Gate-room but did not, to her relief, offer to accompany her to Kelwona. Not that she would have minded his company -- she never did -- but she wanted to discuss her nightmares with Jonas in private, for a number of reasons. The fact that the nightmares involved Jack and herself killing each other was hardly the least of those reasons, but there _were others. If the Colonel thought she was compromised in _any_ way, he would pull her from active duty, plain and simple._

She would have done the same in his situation, if one of her people was potentially compromised, but she was _not_ and she knew it. She was not sure _how_ she knew it, exactly, but she did. As much as these nightmares scared her, worried her that she _might be compromised in the very near future, she knew in her heart that she was _not_. Not at present, at least._

But if there nightmares actually _were_ visions, then she _would be, unless she could find a way to stop the events of the dreams from unfolding. She could not have begun to know where to start in that regard but, again, Jonas had some experience with such matters. If anyone could help her, it would be Jonas Quinn. _

Her stomach gave an anxious lurch as the Gate started to spin, and she found herself wondering if she was doing the right thing or not. Jonas had inadvertently caused his visions to come true by trying to prevent them. What if she was walking into that kind of situation? But there were no Gua'old on Kelwona, so she could not possibly be infested by one there, either. 

"I hate paradoxes," she muttered, shaking her head.

  
"What's that, Carter?" Jack asked, frowning curiously. 

"Nothing, sir," she assured him, grateful that the Gate was so loud while dialing. It had effectively obscured her comment from him. 

He frowned down at her for a moment before nodding. "Say hi to Jonas for me," he directed as the wormhole's event-horizon exploded into existence. "Tell him that offer to go fishing when he gets the time still stands."  

Sam grinned and nodded at her CO, her anxiety effectively washed away by his flip comment. As long as Jack O'Neill was still a smart-ass, things could not be _that_ wrong with the universe. Saluting smartly, she walked up the ramp and crossed the event-horizon. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Spoiler Warning:** Sorry, probably should have included this earlier but it slipped my mind. Spoilers for "Unnatural Selection", "Prophecy", and "Fallout"

**Chapter 3**

Sam was greeted with wary surprise by those in the Kelwonan gate-room who had not been expecting any visitors. In her civilian clothes, they were somewhat skeptical that she was, indeed, a member of the SGC. 

Irritated with herself for not thinking about the fact that the entire planet was probably still on high-alert after the Gua'old invasion, she explained, "Look, I'm just here to visit a friend of mine. Jonas, Jonas Quinn…"

"You know Representative Quinn?" one of the guards asked, regarding her dubiously.

"Yeah. We worked together for almost a year." She nodded. "I _told_ you, I'm Major Samantha Carter of SG-1."

Further argument was forestalled when a member of the SGC's diplomatic corps entered the gate-room, obviously on his way back to Earth. 

"Oh, hello, Major," he greeted her. "I didn't know SG-1 was scheduled to visit."

"Oh, we're not, Moran," Sam told him, smiling faintly as the guards who had been harassing her immediately made themselves busy elsewhere. "I just had some down time, thought I'd visit Jonas, see how he's doing…"

He nodded faintly. "I'm sure your visit will cheer him up," he said.

She frowned. "Jonas needs cheering up?" she asked. That was definitely not characteristic of the Jonas Quinn she remembered. "Well, is he okay?"

"Mostly just tired, I think," Moran assured her. "Everyone's really scrambling here, trying to get this new government organized and there are hard feelings on all sides just making it harder." Grimacing, he added, "There was nearly a fistfight between two delegates last week." 

"Oh, my God…"

He nodded. "Nasty business. First they were just insulting each other, then they started shouting, and the next thing I know they're on their feet and Jonas is standing between them pushing them apart." He shook his head. "I sometimes think he's the only calm or impartial one in the lot."

"Sounds like it," Sam agreed. "You headed back to earth?"

"Yeah, the General wanted an update."

She nodded, wondering if the negotiations that had nearly degenerated into a brawl would find a place in the official report. "Then I won't keep you."

"Thanks, Major. Good to see you again," he added over his shoulder as he dialed. 

"You, too," she shouted over the noise of the event-horizon bursting into life. Turning to one of the guards, she asked, "Now, where can I find Jonas?"

"Well, ma'am, at this hour Representative Quinn would probably be at his home. I can have someone escort you if you'd like." 

She smiled faintly, aware that the offer was a tacit apology for his earlier treatment of her. "I'd appreciate it. I don't really know my way around the city, after all."

He nodded. "Shawn!" he called to one of the guards.

"Yes, sir?" a young man asked, jogging up.

"This is Major Carter of the SGC. Drive her to Representative Quinn's house, will you."

"Yes, sir. This way, ma'am," he said, gesturing for Sam to precede him.  

***

"Would you like me to wait, ma'am?" Shawn asked as they pulled into a large court situated in front of an even larger house. Jonas had obviously moved up in the world from the time when he had been reviled as a traitor. 

"No, that's okay," she assured him. 

There were enough lights on to indicate that someone was home, and even if Jonas was not there, it would only have been a short walk back to the Gate. It was a beautiful evening for a walk, too. As Shawn left, she walked up the steps of the front porch, impressed by both the size and elegant architecture of the house. Jonas was _definitely _moving up in the world. Pleased that he was obviously doing well in his new life, she rang the bell.

The door was answered almost immediately by a pretty young girl who had, to judge by her coat, just been leaving.

"May I help you, ma'am?" she asked politely.

"Is Jonas here? Representative Quinn," she amended since that was what everyone else seemed to call him.

"I'm afraid the Representative isn't receiving visitors this evening, ma'am. May I take a message?"

Sam blinked, surprised. Of course, as Moran had pointed out, Jonas had to have been incredibly busy and would no doubt cherish what little free time he did get.

"If you could just tell him that Sam Carter dropped by," she began.

"_Major_ Sam Carter?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly.

"Uh, yeah." Sam nodded faintly. 

"Come in, ma'am," the girl said, shucking her coat and steering Sam inside.

"I thought he wasn't receiving visitors…"

"Representative Quinn left standing orders yesterday that you were to be admitted no matter what."

"He did?" Sam asked, frowning faintly. That seemed a little too coincidental to be mere chance. 

"Oh, yes, ma'am," she answered, leading Sam up a large staircase. "And if I may be so bold, he's always spoken most highly of you and the others of the Tau'ri. He says you have technologies that our own scientists can not begin to conceive of…"

"Jonas never seemed to have much of a problem with them," she pointed out with a grin. 

"Representative Quinn is most gifted," she answered gravely. "He says that many of your medical practices and technologies will soon be available to everyone on the planet. Is that true?"

Sam nodded. "That's the plan."

"I'm glad. Your… antibiotics have already saved many lives." 

"Wait until you see what else they have," Jonas chimed in casually, leaning into the hallway and smiling at the two. "They're opening up a brave new world here."

"You don't look even slightly surprised to see me," Sam noted. 

"Eh, I knew you couldn't stay away forever." He grinned. "I thought you were on your way home, Rebecca?"

"Oh, I was when the Major arrived, sir."

"Ah. Well, you'd better run, then. Don't want Isaac worrying."

"Yes, sir. Good night, sir. Major." Bowing her head to each, she turned and left.

"It's good to see you again, Sam," Jonas told her, giving her a quick hug. "It would be better if you didn't have a good reason for coming." 

"You _are_ getting the visions again," Sam whispered, staring at him. "My God, Jonas, we need to get you--"

"No." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter how many times they cut me open, Sam, they can't rewrite my genetic codes and the only machine that _could_ was destroyed." He shrugged. "I honestly don't believe it's going to hurt me, anyway. I'm changing, that's all."

"That's how you broke up that fistfight the other day?" she realized, smiling.

He shrugged admission of the fact. "Here, let's go into my study. Or the garden if you prefer," he added. "I love that garden. It reminds me of the one my mother kept when I was little." 

"Sounds nice," Sam agreed, nodding. "Lead the way." As they walked, she said, "So you know something's wrong. You know _what_ yet?"

He shook his head faintly, frowning. "I still can't control them absolutely or see everything, but I'm getting better at it. Something has you scared, I know that much." He turned to face her, his frown deepening. "I also know that it takes a hell of a lot _to_ scare you…" He shook his head, opening a pair of glass doors and ushering her into the garden. "So what's going on?"

"A lot," Sam sighed, looking curiously around. 

It was a simple garden composed mostly of trees and flowering shrubs, dominated by a large, flower-filled lake. Those flowers bioluminesced, casting a pale blue glow over the entire courtyard. She made a mental note to bring a few back for analysis before joining him on a stone bench and getting down to the reason for her visit.

"This is going to sound absolutely crazy, Jonas, but I think I might be seeing the future," she said quickly, not looking at him.

"And you don't like what you see?"  
  


She shook her head, glancing cautiously up at him. There was no trace of disbelief or skepticism in his expression. She supposed she should have known Jonas well enough to know that he would believe her. 

Jonas regarded her thoughtfully for a long moment before continuing. "When my sister was little, she would have these dreams and they would come true. I remember one night, about a week before our parents died, she came to me in tears because she had dreamt that they would…" He trailed off, sighing softly. "She always knew which ones would come true."

"I didn't know you had a sister. You never mentioned it."

"We were separated after our parents died. I've been looking for her since I got back, but I haven't had any luck yet." He sighed again. "I'll keep looking, though. Hannah's out there, I know she is. I'll find her." He shook his head, forcing himself to return to the matter at hand. "I guess seeing the future kind of ran in the family. My grandmother used to read tea-leaves and cards." He glanced over at Sam. "Anything like that in your family?"

"No, nothing." She shook her head. "It's probably nothing, it just…"

"It scares you." Jonas nodded. "That I can relate to. Visions can be very scary things. What are yours of?"

"Myself, possessed by a Gua'old, killing the others…" She shook her head. "They may be nightmares, but it just feels so _real_!" 

"No wonder you're scared," he murmured, nodding. "Let's go inside, Sam. I'll make a pot of tea and we can discuss this." He rose and offered his hand. "Do the others know?"

"They know about the nightmares."

"But not that you think they're visions of the future?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't tell them. They wouldn't have believed me. You I _knew_ would understand."

He smiled faintly as he steered her inside and towards the sitting room. "Huh, maybe you really _can_ foretell the future."

***

"How are the others doing?" Jonas asked as they settled down in his study with a pot of tea and a plate of cookies.

"Good, they're all good. Jack's still nagging me to go fishing with him," she added, grinning. "I'm running out of excuses. Uh, Teal'c is visiting his son, Daniel is up to his eyeballs in translating some new inscriptions. Same old, really."

"And Janet?" 

"Well, she's busy handling the medical exchange program we have going with your people, but she's loving every minute of it, too."

"What's she think about your nightmares?"

"Stress, overwork…" Sam shrugged. "You know, the things doctors always say when they can't find anything wrong with you." 

He grinned at the assessment. "So she ran you through the test-mill?" 

"Two or three times." Sam grimaced. "I swear a few of those tests were just to train the new phlebotomist."

Jonas laughed and shook his head. "Janet is fond of her blood-tests. I remember she used to salivate over mine even _before_ we realized that I was different from humans from your planet…" He rubbed the crook of his arm, shaking his head. "But I still miss her, needles and all. She's a nice woman." 

"You always did get along better with the _women_ of the SGC," she teased. "Speaking of nice women, how's Kianna?" 

"She's good, doing great." Jonas smiled faintly. "Just got a teaching post at the most respected university on the planet."

"And?"

"And that puts her half a continent away," he said, sighing softly. 

"Oh, Jonas, I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. It's just as well, really, I think. She's a sweet, wonderful woman, but she's not the one I was falling in love with, either. And me... I think I just reminded her of a time in her life she'd rather forget. We correspond regularly, though." He smiled faintly. "She's happy. I couldn't ask for more for her."

"You miss her?"

"Yeah, but... mostly it's not _her I'm missing." He shook his head. "I'm still not sure how I feel about that, how I _should_..."_

"I wish there was something I could do to help you. I know how much the Gua'old can mess with a person's life _and their head."_

"Time heals all wounds. Nothing happens in this universe without a purpose. It'll make sense eventually."

"Well, knowing you and your capacity for comprehending the incomprehensible, I'm sure it will," she agreed, sipping her tea. "Oh, that's good!"

"Thanks. I have a local botanist mix it up for me." 

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Does it come with any warning labels?" 

He grinned and nodded. "Something about drowsiness, not mixing it with alcohol, and mild hallucinations," he answered glibly. "But that last one's not something you or I need to worry about at all." 

Sam smiled and shook her head. "How do you know? How do you tell the difference?"  
  


"What, between a vision and a hallucination?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm not crazy, so…" He shrugged. "I don't know. You can just kind of _tell_. There's a sense of certainty to them."

"Well, I'm definitely feeling that, but these are dreams, not visions."

"At least not yet," Jonas amended gently. 

Sam looked up at him, startled.

"Before I started having the visions, I was getting these horrible nightmares." He paused, inhaling deeply. "At least, I _thought there were nightmares until I got back here and saw what the Naquadriah bomb was capable of..."_

"Oh, God," Sam whispered, reaching across the end-table and touching his shoulder. "Jonas..."

"We brought this on ourselves," he said quietly, shaking his head. "Knowledge in itself isn't good or evil, but blindly pursuing it without a second thought for the potential ramifications... That's just wrong. Of all people, _I_ should have known better."

"You can't blame yourself," she protested.

"I do, though. And I do my best to remind others of what can happen." He sighed, but it turned into a yawn. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sam," he apologized, shaking it off. "I've been up for... uh, about twenty-three hours."

"Get some rest. I'll come back another time."

"You can stay the night," he offered. "I'll have a few hours free in the morning, we can finish discussing this." Seeing her pause, he quickly added, "I have a guest-room. Rebecca sometimes stays there if we work too late into the night. Some of her nightclothes are in there, too. I'm sure they'll fit you."

Sam considered for a moment before nodding. She had not promised the others that she would be back immediately and, on friendly soil visiting Jonas, there would be no cause for them to worry.

"Thanks, Jonas. I'd like that." She smiled at him, rising as he did. "I've missed you," she added.

"Me, too." He grinned at her. "But I _really wish that we could sometimes meet again without the stakes being life or death." _

"Hey, it's _always_ life or death in this line of work," she pointed out with a wry smile.

"So it is," Jonas agreed, grinning. "Come on. I'll show you the guest-room..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Sorry it took me so long to get this up (RL attacked). I made it a bit longer than usual by way of apology. Also, a little Sam/Jack shippiness is starting to creep in. Don't worry, it won't get any more overt than it is on the series

**Chapter 4**

Visiting Jonas, while it did not answer any questions, went a long way towards easing Sam's fears. She had not had a nightmare for days, which also helped. Janet had hesitantly returned her to active duty after exacting a promise from Jack not to get SG-1 into any unnecessary fire-fights. _But those are the best kind!_ he had protested before solemnly promising.

Pinned down now in the middle of a _very _necessary fire-fight, Sam was inclined to agree with that assessment. At least the unnecessary ones could be planned for.

"Carter, dial us home!" Jack shouted, laying down a line of cover-fire as she darted towards the DHD. She made it halfway there before a Zat-blast took her in the back. "Carter!" he shouted, opening fire as several of the Jaffa approached her prone form.  

The Jaffa scattered but Sam barely had time to register relief before a pair of sandal-clad feet stepped into her line of vision. She struggled against the paralyzing pair of the Zat, pushing herself onto her arms, ready to fight. Jack fired a few shots at the woman, but her shield protected her. Sam was peripherally aware that he had abandoned his cover and was running in their direction. 

The woman crouched in front of Sam, absently flicking a speck of dust from her toga. "Our brother was right. You _will_ do nicely..."  she announced, her eyes glowing as she spoke. She reached for Sam's face only to be knocked to the ground by Jack as he reached them.

"Sir!" Sam shouted, trying to warn him that the woman had a ribbon-device. 

"Take her!" the woman ordered her Jaffa as she used the ribbon-device on Jack.

"No!" Sam shouted, struggling against the half-dozen Jaffa who had just converged on her. "Sir! Sir!"

***

She woke up still struggling, fighting against the hands trying to restrain her until Jonas' voice filtered into her consciousness. 

"Sorry," she said softly, sitting up as he climbed off of her. She straightened her nightgown, glad for the excuse not to look at him. 

"I was afraid you might hurt yourself," Jonas explained, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better."

"I'll bet," he agreed quietly. "The dreams again?"

"It was different this time, I was still me, but... I think they were taking me to be used as a host." She shivered. "Sorry if I woke you."

"It's okay. No big deal," he assured her.

"Thanks," she said, looking up at him. A large bruise was forming on his cheek. "Oh, God, Jonas, did I do that? I'm sorry..."

"I've had worse," he assured her with a faint smile, batting her hand away. "Can't say I've ever had a woman I was in bed with give me worse, but..."

Sam laughed in spite of herself. "You spent _way_ too much time with the Colonel while you were on earth, Jonas," she informed him. "Because for a minute there I thought I was talking to him."

He shrugged helplessly, then his smile widened. "You find yourself wrestling with him in bed a lot?" He winced at her pained look in response to the question. "I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing to say. _Very_ stupid..." He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I should remind you of what you can't have, either."

She stared at him with wide eyes. "What do you... How do you..."

"I'd have to be blind to have missed the way you two look at each other sometimes," he told her quietly, shrugging. "When you don't think anyone else is watching. I know it doesn't really help, but I always thought it was a stupid rule." 

"The regulations exist for a reason, Jonas."

"So what you're telling me is that it's a military thing?"

She nodded. "I mean, even before you start thinking about what it would do to the chain of command, it could seriously undermine team morale."

"Not your team." Jonas shook his head faintly. 

"I know," Sam sighed. "But the rules are the rules." 

She blinked and shook her head, abruptly unsettled. Was she actually doing this? Sitting in bed with Jonas talking about her lack of a relationship with the Colonel? Five minutes after waking up under him? Five _weeks_ after hallucinations of both the Colonel and her own father had told her to forget the possibility of _ever_ having a relationship with Jack? 

"I don't want to talk about this, Jonas," she told him, shaking her head. 

"Well, I _know_ you don't want to go back to sleep."

"Reading minds now, too?" she asked, frowning. He had no right to be so damned insightful into the way her mind worked.

"No, not really. Just remembering what it used to be like for me." He shook his head faintly. "It gets easier. I'm not sure if that can be considered a good thing or not, but it does."

She nodded. "Thanks."

"So," he said, leaning around her and fluffing her pillows, "tell me about the dream."

"I'd really rather not talk about that, either."

He shook his head again, giving her a gentle nudge until she leaned back against the pillows. "You came to this planet to do this. So let's do it," he suggested. 

Sam sighed and closed her eyes, nodding and trying to relax. It was not easy, not with all the adrenaline of a fire-fight still fresh in her system. Taking a deep breath, she quietly related the dream to Jonas.

"So you remembered going home? Janet clearing you for duty again?"

She nodded. "I even remember what we were eating when we were ambushed. Hell, I can still _taste_ it."

Jonas drew a deep sigh. Whatever doubts he might still have entertained were gone, banished by her words. This was the real thing. She had been in the future, had seen it. She had _lived _it. 

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" she asked quietly, the look on his face making her stomach churn. 

"The more you know about what's going to happen, the better chance you have of changing it," he told her. "The future isn't fixed. You _can_ change this." 

She sighed and nodded. "How?"

"We'll figure it out," he promised, giving her hand a squeeze. "Tomorrow. Get some rest. I'll sit up with you."

"Oh, Jonas, you don't have to do that."

"I know I don't. But I'm still going to. Trust me, you'll sleep better," he promised. "Just close your eyes and try to relax."

Giving him a grateful smile, Sam did as he suggested.

"And if the dreams come back, I'll be right here to wake you up," he added. "It's going to be okay, Sam."

"I sure hope you're right."

  
"I'm usually right," he pointed out. "Night, Sam."

"Night, Jonas. Thanks."

***

"Are you sure about this, Jonas?" Sam asked as they walked back to the Gate. 

"Positive. I want to discuss this with Doctor Frasier and the others. And I want to be there for my friend."

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate it," Sam told him. 

Jonas shrugged and they spent the rest of the walk to the Gate in companionable silence which lasted until they reached the other side. 

"Hey, look who decided to rejoin us!" Jack's cheerful voice greeted them. "Welcome back, Carter. Jonas?" He stared at Jonas for a long moment before speaking, his eyes lingering on his bruised face. "So, I see the wonderful world of diplomacy is agreeing with you," he deadpanned.

"That obvious?" Jonas asked wryly, rubbing his cheek. He was not suicidal enough to tell Jack who had really given him the bruise or, rather, not suicidal enough to tell him _where_ she had given it to him. 

"So, let me guess. You're planets about to blow up and you need our help. No, wait, we did that last month. You want to borrow a Zat to keep the other diplomats in line?"

Jonas scratched his head for a moment. "Actually..."

"Uh, it's complicated, sir," Sam began, shifting uneasily. Now that she was actually back at the SGC, she felt absolutely ridiculous about what she and Jonas were about to tell the others.

"I think Sam's nightmares are visions of the future," Jonas supplied when she hedged. 

Jack raised an eyebrow, glancing from Jonas to Sam, who stared at her feet. "O...kay..." 

"Before you dismiss the idea, remember that you've seen it before," Jonas pointed out reasonably. 

"Yeah, but that was _different_. That was because Nirrti messed with your DNA."

Jonas nodded acknowledgement of the fact. "Yeah, but I've been talking to Sam, and it sounds to me like these dreams are real premonitions."

Jack bit his lower lip, glancing from Jonas to Sam. "Carter, can I have a minute?"

"I told him everything, sir," Sam said quietly, looking up at him. "Jonas thinks it's the real thing and I've never doubted his judgment before."

Jack sighed and nodded. "Well, I'd still say the Gateroom is probably _not_ the place to discuss this."

"You could have something there," Sam agreed. 

Jonas nodded. "And we should discuss this with Janet and the General." 

Jack stared down at the younger man for a long moment, thoughtful. The nightmares alone were jeopardizing their willingness to let Sam do her job. If the _nature_ of those nightmares became common knowledge, Jonas' assertion that they were prophetic would probably result in Sam being grounded indefinitely. Judging from the look on Sam's face, she knew it, too. Still, if she really _was_ in danger of being taken as a host...

"I'll get the General."

***

"We could be looking at a sleep disorder," was Janet's first contribution. She and the General had listened in silence as Jonas and Sam described the dreams themselves, their apprehensions that they might be prophetic, and, finally, Sam's behavior the night before. She glanced at the bruise on Jonas' face. "REM sleep behavior disorder. Normally during REM sleep an individual is paralyzed. Acting out dreams is very rare, and potentially dangerous. I'd like to do a sleep study on you, Sam, maybe get some more brain imaging." 

"Well, that's fine," Sam began. "But..."

"But it doesn't really address the issue at hand," Jack finished for her, nodding. 

"Well, if these really are some kind of visions, I can not in good conscious jeopardize Major Carter by sending her off-world again until the threat has passed," Hammond said. 

"Sir, come on!" Sam protested, shaking her head. "We should know from our experiences with Jonas that trying to keep things from happening like that doesn't work in anything resembling a predictable manner. In the past, we have _caused_ exactly the incidents we were trying to prevent."

"Be that as it may, you are far safer from Gua'old infestation in this facility than you are off-world. Now, until we know for sure what's going on here, I am taking you _off_ of active duty." 

"Give you a chance to run those simulations you've been wanting to," Jack told her with an apologetic shrug. 

  
Sam sighed and shook her head. "Come on, sir, there are a lot of missions we can go on where we aren't necessarily in any danger from the Gua'old."

"I have made my decision, Major. Now I want you to go to the infirmary with Doctor Frasier so she can get started on those tests."

She nodded shortly, rising and following Janet from the briefing room. Jack remained, staring at Jonas. 

"Sir, you have to believe that I didn't know this would happen..."

Jack shook his head, irritated. He may have liked Jonas, but he did _not_ like that Carter had gone to him before coming to her own CO with a problem. 

"Why not? You seem to know everything else that happens before anyone else. Breaking up fistfights before they start, Jonas? Looks like the only blows you're having trouble predicting these days are the ones that come from friendlies. What were you doing in her bedroom when she was asleep, anyway? That is, I _assume_ you were in separate bedrooms when you went to bed?" 

Jack stopped, blinking in surprise at his own words. Where the hell had that last come from? As if he had any claim at all on Sam other than that of a concerned friend. _Don't go there, Jack. Do **not** go there..._

Jonas regarded him steadily and spoke in a low voice. "She was in the guestroom. The screaming woke me up and I went to make sure she was okay." 

Jack flushed, embarrassed. "Jonas, I..."

"I understand, sir," Jonas assured him quietly. "You're just concerned about her. We both are."

Jack could not help but be grateful to Jonas for completely ignoring his behavior. "Yeah, well, if you're right, we _should_ be."

"I know." Jonas nodded faintly. "That's why I came back with her. I want to try to help. And, I mean, unlike the rest of you, I actually have some experience with things like this."

"Quite a bit, it seems like," Jack noted. "Maybe more than the rest of us know?"

Jonas shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, the visions are back. You're a smart man, you knew that."

"Can you control them?"

"Not usually." Jonas shook his head apologetically. "It's more like... they come out of nowhere and I have to decide if I'm going to fight them or try to take them farther."

"Huh." Jack nodded faintly. "Anything about Carter?"  
  


"Nothing useful."

"Nothing _useful_?" Jack repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"I knew she'd come. I didn't know why."

"Nothing useful," Jack repeated again. "Well, you just be sure to let me know if that changes."

"Of course, sir."

"You know, Jonas, you don't serve under me any more, you don't have to call me 'sir'." 

"Oh, okay. Thank you, sir."

Jack just rolled his eyes. Deciding that an olive-branch was probably in order for his earlier display, he asked, "Hey, what time was it when you left? Hungry?"

"A little," Jonas admitted. Of course, he was usually hungry.

"Come on, I'll take you to the commissary. It's blue Jell-O day."

"Sweet."

"So," Jack asked as they walked. "Job keeping you busy?"

"Busier than this one ever did," Jonas answered with a grin.

"Bummer. You ever get enough time off to do any fishing?"

"After they dropped the N-bomb, I'm not sure I'd want to eat anything that came out of the water."

"True." Jack shrugged. "You could come with me some time..."

  
"Really?" Jonas asked, surprised. "Wow, that'd be fun. I've never been fishing before."

"Imagine that," Jack murmured, shaking his head.

***

"He didn't have to ground me completely," Sam grumbled to Janet. 

"General Hammond did what he thought best. Personally, I agree with him."

"Not you, too," she sighed. "Come on, Janet."

"Sam, whatever else is true, you are acting out violent nightmares. You're a danger to yourself and to those around you for as long as that's going on. Now if you and Jonas are right, and there's more to it than that, I can't really blame the General for wanting to keep you safely on this side of the iris."

"Yeah, but for how long?" she asked. 

"Until we can sort this out. Now, best case, these _are_ only nightmares. In that case, you've still got a sleep disorder we need to deal with. Worst case, you leave this planet at exactly the wrong time and you end up a Gua'old. Sam, we care about you. None of us wants to lose you, especially not like that."

"I know, Janet." Sam nodded weakly. "I just feel so completely _helpless_ sitting here doing nothing. I'm used to being out there saving the world, taking action, solving problems."

"Well, this problem's a _little_ bigger than a pair of mother ships in orbit ready to destroy us, or a black hole trying to suck us in."

Sam laughed and shook her head. "So, what do the imaging tests say?"

"Well, nothing resembling a tumor, although you've got some brain activity that's fairly abnormal..." Janet shook her head. "I'll need to run more tests."

Sam groaned. "That new phlebotomist getting any better?"

Janet chuckled and shook her head. "Tell you what, Sam. You've been such a good patient that I'll draw the blood myself."

"Does she get a lollipop, too?" Daniel asked, leaning against the doorframe. 

Janet looked up at him with an unreadable expression. "When was _your_ last routine blood profile?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Sorry, Janet, I had one right after our last mission."

"Huh, well, depending on how Sam's blood work comes out, I may want to run the rest of SG-1 as well."

Daniel groaned.

"If the onset of her symptoms can be traced back to your time on Delphi..." Janet shrugged. "You were all prisoners." 

"Ooh, I hadn't thought of that," he said quietly. 

"Must be why they pay me the medium bucks," Janet answered with a grin. "Did you need something, Doctor Jackson?" she asked, prepping a syringe for Sam.

"Just came to see how the patient is."

"I'm fine, Daniel. A little upset over being summarily grounded-- and if you tell me that the General was only acting as he thought best..."

"Okay, shutting up now." He held up his hands in surrender."

"Thank you. At least you'll have time to catch up on those translations."

"Oh, I finished those last night." 

"Wow, that was fast."

"Well, it turned out not to be as completely alien a script as I thought. They turned out to be related to the petroglyphs found in Tiwanaku, so all I had to do was cross-reference them to the translations along with certain symbolism still used by the Aymara today and..." He paused. "And you really don't care how I did it, do you?"

Sam laughed and shook her head, hissing softly as Janet took the opportunity provided by her momentary distraction to insert the needle. "What did the inscriptions say, Daniel?"

"Nothing very interesting," he admitted, shrugging. "Just that a Gua'old named Vericocha ruled there for several thousand years."

"Never heard of him."

"Minor-league. Was probably wiped out centuries ago." He shrugged. "Dead end, really. I finished translating the Delphi inscriptions that we managed to get before our capture, though."

"What did they say?" She asked. "Thanks, Janet," she murmured as Janet removed the needle and applied a bandage. 

"Uh, apparently, Apollo is not the only Gua'old ruling there."

"What, he's sharing with another one?"

Daniel nodded faintly. "You know much Greek mythology?" he asked, perching on the edge of an empty bed.

"Little bit, why?"

"Apollo had a sister, Artemis. They were fairly inseparable according to some accounts. I went to grad school with this woman who contended that their relationship was actually incestuous."

"Yuck."

"Yeah, well... Looks like art's imitating life. Apollo shares his domain with," he paused, pulling a sheet of paper out of his pocket and unfolding it. "Our royal sister and Queen, Artemis," he read. 

_"Our brother was right. You **will** do nicely..."_

"Artemis," Sam whispered, closing her eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Janet looked up from Sam's test-results as someone walked into the infirmary. "Oh, hi, Jonas," she greeted him with a smile. "What's up?"

"Just wondering if you had Sam's blood work back yet," he told her, sitting on one of the beds. 

"I just got the results," she told him, not looking up from the report. "I'm going to have to go over them in more detail before I know anything."

"Okay." Jonas nodded faintly.  

Janet looked up at him. "How long are you going to be on-planet? Cassie and I would love to have you over for dinner some night."

He smiled. "I'd like that."

"Great. How about tonight?"

Jonas closed his eyes and braced his hands against the bed as his head started to swim and a vision pushed its way into his awareness.

"Jonas?" Janet asked, worried by the dizzy spell.

"Tonight's not going to be good for you," he told her. He opened his mouth again to elaborate, then quickly closed it, aware that she was staring at him. Oops…

"You're getting visions again," she said softly. "Jonas, this isn't good. We're going to need to get you down to X-ray right away..."

He shook his head. "It's okay, Janet," he assured her. "I'm under a neurologist's care at home." 

"You have another growth?" She shook her head, concerned. "Jonas, we need to get it out."

"No!" he protested, shaking his head. "Janet, no amount of surgery is going to change what's happening to me."

"But this thing could kill you."

He shook his head again. "Janet, you told me that the last one was benign."

"That doesn't mean this one is, too, Jonas..."

"It is. I know it is." He shook his head. "Janet, please trust me on this. Nothing is going to change what I am, what I'm turning into. It's nothing to be afraid of," he assured her. 

Janet stared at him helplessly for a few moments before sighing and nodding. She may not have liked it, but he had the right to decline treatment. And maybe he knew something that she did not... He _could_ see the future, after all.

"So, why isn't tonight going to be good for me?" she asked finally. 

"You're going to be very busy here. I counted at least six badly injured people." 

"Damn it." She sighed softly, shaking her head. There were seven teams off-world right now, three of them together on a very dangerous mission to one of Anubis' worlds. "SG teams?" 

"If I said yes, and you got the off-world teams recalled, how do you know that that wouldn't be what caused them to get hurt?" he asked quietly.

Janet stared at him, startled both by the question and by his pained tone. "How can you live with this?" she whispered.

"It isn't always easy," he admitted. "Sometimes it just comes down to picking your battles. The more distant something is, the bigger an impact you can have on it, but not always in the ways you mean to. You just never know."

"How can it not drive you crazy, though?" she asked, shaking her head.

He shrugged. "It's a part of who I am, now. I'm getting better at handling it."

"Huh." She nodded faintly. "So, what's your gut tell you about this one?"

"That recalling those teams would be a very bad idea." Pausing and sighing softly, he added, "But that you should have your trauma team on-call anyway."

Janet echoed his sigh, moving to sit next to him on the bed. "So, would I have been the cause or not?"

He shrugged, turning to face her. "Sometimes you _cause_ what you're trying to prevent, sometimes you _can_ avert it. And sometimes you just end up making it even worse. You can never be entirely sure until it's already happened."

"How can you ever do anything? I would be... completely immobilized," she told him.

"There are times when I have been," he admitted. "You just have to play the probabilities. Eventually, you end up doing something right."

"And in the meantime?"

"And in the meantime, you _hope_." He shrugged. "Look, the prophecies we should be worried about right now are Sam's, not mine."

"I can't argue with that," Janet agreed. "I should finish looking these test-results over." 

He nodded and rose. "I'm going to go see if I can help her get more out of these dreams, draw a clearer picture of what's going to happen. The more we know, the better our chances of preventing this."

"Okay, Jonas. It's good to see you again."

"You, too, Janet. I'd love to take you up on that offer to come over some time."

"I'll let _you_ pick the day," she said with a faint smile, shaking her head.

"Good idea," he agreed, grinning. "I'll let you know."

"You do that," she called after him as he left. She sighed softly, glancing down at Sam's chart. Still nothing resembling a growth or tumor, but her blood-work was definitely abnormal. Highly increased levels of Serotonin, Acetylcholine, Norepinephrine... 

Definitely not healthy. 

Shaking her head, she rose to make her report to the General. 

***

"If you fight it, you're never going to be able to see it all," Jonas advised Sam. "Now, I know it's hard _not_ to resist something that scary, but you have to try."

She inhaled deeply, nodding. "Is this going to work with me awake?"

"Doctor Mackenzie thinks that, if you're in a deep enough state of hypnosis, it will."

"Okay, let's get this over with."

"Okay, just try to relax," he said, sitting down across from her. "Usually I start by closing my eyes."

Sam nodded and did as suggested, raising one eyebrow at the sound of tapping on the door to her room. "Wonder who that is?" she asked, glancing at Jonas, who shrugged. Shrugging herself, she rose and opened the door. "Oh, hello, sir."

"Any luck yet?" Jack asked without preamble. 

"Sir, it's only been five minutes," Sam pointed out.

"What's with the candles?" he asked, gesturing around the small room. Every flat surface was covered with lit candles.

"Teal'c uses candles," Jonas answered, shrugging. 

"Huh..." Jack glanced around the room again, his expression dubious.

"Would you like to join us, sir?" Jonas offered. "If Sam doesn't mind..."

Jack glanced down at Sam, who shrugged. "Don't mind if I do."

Jonas quickly retrieved a chair for Jack, and Sam could have sworn that his grin was knowing. She shook her head and sat cross-legged on the bed again as the two men settled themselves.

"Okay, just breathe like I showed you," Jonas reminded her as she closed her eyes. "Close out everything around you and turn your mind inward. Listen to the sound of your heartbeat."

Sam nodded imperceptibly, focusing on keeping her breathing slow and even and allowing the rhythmic beating of her heart to lull her. Jonas' quiet, gentle voice soothed her as he continued chanting instructions, and the smell of the Colonel's aftershave reminded her that he was close by, that she was protected. 

"Okay, now reach back," Jonas murmured. "Remember Delphi, like it was in your dreams. Remember yourself in that temple with Teal'c and Daniel. Do you see it?"

Sam's breath caught in her throat, and she shook her head slightly.

"It's okay, Sam," Jonas assured her. "They're only dreams, memories. It can't hurt you."

"No," she protested, shaking her head. "Get _out_!" 

"It's not real," Jonas reminded her firmly. "It can't hurt you. Just go with it..."

"Don't, you can't! He's my friend, damn it!" she groaned, shaking her head more violently, oblivious to the two men in the room with her.

"It's okay, Sam," Jonas soothed.

"Damn it, Jonas," Jack protested, scowling at the younger man. "Does she look 'okay' to you?"

"_No!_" Sam whimpered. "No, not him, too... You can't." Letting out a low groan, she fell backwards on the bed and whispered, "We die together, our love..."

"Carter?" Jack demanded, jumping to his feet and moving to her side. Her entire body was trembling and her face was streaked with tears. "Are you okay?"

"No," she whispered. "Sir, I..."

"It's okay, Carter," he murmured, glancing at Jonas. The young man looked ill. "Was that _really_ necessary?"

"It's not his fault," Sam muttered, shaking her head. "I have to do this."

Jack sighed softly and brushed back her hair. "Yeah, probably. But right now I want you to rest. Don't make me make that an order."

She nodded, smiling gratefully up at him. "Thanks for being here."

"That's what friends do."

"Here, Sam," Jonas murmured, appearing at the bedside with a pill and a glass of water. "These are the ones Doctor Frasier said would help with the anxiety."

"Thank you, Jonas." She gave him a weak smile as Jack helped her sit up long enough to swallow the pill. 

"Get some rest," he murmured, squeezing her shoulder. "We'll try again later. There's no hurry."

"Okay. I'll see you later."

"Yeah." Giving her shoulder a final pat, Jonas turned and left the room.

"You okay?" Jack asked quietly. 

"No." She shook her head. "I... I remember fighting against her, but she was too strong. And when I would fight, she would _punish_ me..."

"You're shaking," he noted. "Should I get Doc Frasier?" 

"No," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Just..."

"Do you want me to leave?" he asked reluctantly.

She shook her head again. 

"Then I'll stay," he answered. 

"Thank you." She opened her eyes as he climbed to his feet. "Sir? What are you doing?"

"Just breaking a few regulations," he informed her, locking the door before returning to the bed. "Come here," he directed, sitting with his back against the wall and extending his arms.

She stared at him with wide eyes for a long moment. "Sir?"

"It's okay, Carter," he assured her. "I promise not to try to take advantage of you. Not my style."

Biting her lower lip and blinking back tears, Sam gratefully slid into his arms, resting her cheek against his chest. "Thank you, sir."   

"Just rest," he suggested. "I'm here if you need me."

Sam decided that any response she might make to that comment would only get her in trouble in her current emotional state. Sighing softly, she closed her eyes and focused on the sound of his heart and the warmth of his body. He was alive, none of it had been real. The fact made it easy for her to forget everything she had experienced during her vision. Except pulling the trigger and seeing the shocked look on his face. She doubted anything would _ever_ erase that gut-wrenching impression. 

Shaking, she buried her face in his chest, clinging to him until she had cried herself to sleep.

***

The experience of being rough-handled into a Gua'old's throne-room by a half-dozen Jaffa would have been a lot more daunting to Sam if she had not experienced it several dozen times before. As it was, she was less focused on the present than on the impending interrogation, steeling herself. Apollo had already questioned the others extensively. Jack had been splinting Teal'c's arm when the Jaffa had come for her. Daniel had every indication of a severe concussion. Jack, in spite of the fact that he had been severely tortured more times than Sam cared to think about, was obviously in bad shape himself. 

And now it was her turn...

The construction of the throne-room was Classical Greek, with columns and low couches everywhere. The attendants were dressed in togas and the Jaffa in armor after the Spartan style. Apollo was lying sprawled on a low couch set upon a dais at the far end of the throne-room, listening attentively to a woman kneeling beside him. At first, with her mane of white hair, Sam thought she must have been quite old. She grunted as the Jaffa forced her to her knees, making the woman look up.

When she looked up, Sam realized that the priestess was actually quite young in spite of her white hair. She regarded Sam with an unsettling smile and burning eyes. "My lord's sister awaits his pleasure," she told Apollo in a sibilant hiss.

He turned his attention from Sam to the priestess. "Does she now, Cybil?" he murmured.

"Mmm." She nodded faintly.

"Well, now..." He rose and stepped down from the dais, approaching Sam. "Female of the Tau'ri," he started, accepting the GDO from an attendant. "_This_ was found in your possession. What is it?"

"It is a key," the Cybil intoned. "The key to unlock the gate." 

"Hmm," Apollo murmured, smiling down at Sam. "What is the code?"

Sam remained silent. One of the Jaffa backhanded her. She bit back a pained cry and glared at the Jaffa. 

"Defiant, aren't we?" Apollo murmured, nodding to himself. "A fighter. Cybil, will we have answers from her?"

"Not as she is _now_, my lord."

Apollo nodded faintly. "All in good time, then." He nodded and gestured to two of the Jaffa. "Strip her," he ordered.

  
"Wh--" Sam began to protest, struggling against the Jaffa holding her as two more quickly removed her uniform. 

Apollo nodded to himself, walking around her in a slow circle and giving her a thorough looking-over. "Many scars," he noted, nodding to himself. "You have survived numerous battles, haven't you?" he asked her.

"Go to hell!" Sam spat.

Apollo smiles faintly. "Our royal uncle might take offense at such an incursion into his territory."

The Cybil's head shot up. "Sokar is no more," she informed Apollo. "This one brought about his end..."

"Did she now?" he asked, his expression delighted. "Oh, you _must_ be something... Our sister will approve." He nodded to one of his Jaffa. "Bring her to the temple," he ordered. "Do not harm her. I'll question her again after Cybil is through with her. Go."  

"Can I at least have my clothes back!" Sam protested as the Jaffa half-carried her off. 

"Appropriate clothes await at the temple," the Cybil assured her, rising and following. "You have pleased our lord. You will please our lady. Hold," she ordered. The Jaffa stopped in their tracks as the Cybil moved to stand in front of Sam. "You will do well," she murmured, reaching up and lightly caressing Sam's cheek. "Our lady will approve mightily." With these words, she reached into her gown and withdrew a slender dagger, lightly flicking it across the hollow of Sam's throat. "It is not pleasant at first, but you will come to _savor_ it."

Darkness overtook Sam before she could react. 

Her next conscious memory was of pain and a Gua'old voice demanding, "**_What is the code?_**"

"Carter, Samantha, Major--" she began, only to feel searing pain shooting through her body. 

***

She woke up screaming.

"Easy, Carter. Easy," Jack's voice filled her awareness. His hands cradled her face and his voice continued to murmur soothingly until she relaxed into his arms again.

"God," she whispered, shaking. The Gua'old definitely had some efficient forms of torture...

"Another vision?" he asked quietly after a long moment spent rocking her and waiting for the tremors to subside. 

"Memory, it was a memory," she told him. "They drugged me. I think they drugged me..." She trailed off abruptly, aware that she was still lying in Jack's arms. She sat up abruptly, straightening. "Sorry, sir," she murmured.

He sighed and shook his head. "Carter, you don't have to act like I'm contagious here. We're not breaking any regs..."

She jumped to her feet, pacing the room. The line was a fine one and they both knew it. _Too_ fine most of the time. But that was not what occupied her attention right now. 

"They drugged me," she repeated, lifting her hand to her throat. There was a tiny round scar there, fading rapidly along with the other marks of her interrogation. "I didn't remember before..."

"You sure?" Jack asked, eyeing her uncertainly. "Carter, would you just sit down for a minute and stop pacing! You're making _me_ nervous, here!"

"Sorry, sir." 

She sat down, doing her best not to fidget. She felt ready to crawl out of her skin. They had done more than drug her. She had lost a substantial amount of time. They had taken her to the temple, done something to her there. 

Jack pulled the other chair in front of hers and sat down. "Why don't you tell me about it," he suggested. 

Closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, she quietly relayed the contents of the dream-memory to him.

"Okay, I think we should probably talk to Janet about this right now."

Warning claxons abruptly started going on. "**_Unscheduled off-world activation!_**"

Jack frowned and rose. "Who's due back?"

"No one," Sam answered, shaking her head and rising. "We should get to the Gate-room." 

He nodded, following her from the room and half-jogging towards the observation-bay. 

  
"Receiving IDC code," Sergeant Davis was announcing as they jogged up the stairs. "It's SG-3."

"They were part of the team raiding Anubis' base," Sam murmured, shaking her head. That could not be good.

"Medical teams are on their way!" Jonas panted, jogging into the room.

"We don't know that anyone's hurt yet," General Hammond protested. 

"Oh, Jonas knows," Jack muttered as the iris opened and men came pouring out of the wormhole, energy-weapon blasts following them. "Jonas knows..."

"Close the iris!" one of the soldiers below shouted. "Get it shut right now!"

"Do it," Hammond ordered, nodding. 

"That's not all of them," Sam whispered, taking a quick headcount. There were, by her count, five unaccounted for. 

Shaking her head, she followed Jack into the Gate-room. The medical teams were still on their way, so the less-wounded soldiers were helping their more severely injured comrades, carrying them off the ramp, applying pressure to injuries, or just reassuring them when there was nothing else to do. Several of the injuries were severe enough to be life-threatening. Most of the remaining team-members would be out of action for weeks. Not one of them was unscathed.

"There was an ambush," a Lieutenant was explaining to Hammond as she struggled to staunch the flow of blood from a wound in her CO's chest. Her own face and torso were badly burned, her uniform a charred tatter. "Anubis' drones, they came at us from all directions..."

"Okay, take it easy," Hammond directed, giving her shoulder a reassuring pat. He looked up as Janet arrived, leading several teams of medical personnel. "That was fast. Good job."   

She nodded an absent acknowledgement as she dropped to her knees next to the Lieutenant, assessing her CO's condition. "Okay, you're doing fine," she told the young woman. "Can you hold that for one minute?" she asked. At the girl's shaky nod, she rose, unable to believe that the girl was still conscious. "Tull, Mead, I have chest trauma and heavy bleeding! Take care of him. Sanders, I've got third-degree burns, forty percent coverage, over here!"

Two doctors and a nurse immediately detached themselves from the throng of personnel swarming through the Gate-room doing triage, hurrying to the injured pair. Janet moved on to the next injured person in line, quickly barking orders and assigning priorities to individual cases and injuries. One man was almost certainly not going to make it and she spent a long moment debating whether to even bother treating him or not before calling a team over to do what they could for him. 

Rising and wiping her bloody hands on her lab coat, she glanced up to the observation room, where Jonas still stood, watching the scene beneath with sad eyes. When he saw her, he dropped his eyes, looking away. Shaking her head, she returned to her treatment of the wounded. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Well, I think we can safely place the timeline for this one squarely pre-"Heroes". *damns the PTB for what they did* Minor spoilers for it might creep in later courtesy of our own Kelwonan oracle, but if you haven't seen the ep, you won't know them when you see them, so it's all good. Except for what the idiots in charge did in the ep :( 

Chapter 6

Janet sighed and poured herself a cup of coffee. It had been a long night and it would be a longer day. Three dead in addition to the five who had never made it back through the Gate, four in critical condition, eight in severe. 

"Are you okay?" a quiet voice asked from her office door.

She did not turn around. "Would it have made a difference, Jonas?" she asked quietly. "Recalling them? Could it possibly have made things any _worse_?" she demanded, frustrated. 

"The drones were waiting to go through the Gate. Most of them already had. The Colonel thinks that calling them earlier probably would have resulted in complete slaughter." 

She put her coffee down and turned to face him. "How do you do it? How can it not drive you crazy?" 

"How can you do what you do and not have it drive you crazy?" he countered gently. "Every time you lose a patient, don't you go through this same thing? Don't you hurt? Don't you wonder?"

"That's different," she protested.

"No, it really isn't." He shook his head faintly. "It _is_ the same. You second-guess yourself and wonder what you could have done differently and..." He shook his head again. "Janet, we can't go through our lives asking ourselves 'what if'. All we can do is our best. And that's enough. It has to be."

She let out a sigh that was almost a sob. 

"Janet," he whispered, taking a step towards her. "I talked to Nurse Kelley and she says that it's a wonder you were able to save as many people as you did. She said you were amazing out there, that this is the first time you've been off your feet since they came in."

"That's my job."

"Your job is to help people who can be helped. What about Captain Crawford?"

"What about him?" she asked, frowning.

"I saw you down there on that floor with him. He was beyond help and you _knew_ it. Most doctors would have left him, tried to save the person next to him. But you treated him anyway and you _pulled him through_." 

She shook her head. "He may not make it. He's in bad shape."

"But he's alive. Because of you. You _can't_ second-guess yourself. You were wonderful last night."

"I did my best."

"That's all you _can_ do," he murmured. "Why don't you go get some rest while you can," he suggested. "It's going to be a long day."

She shook her head. "No, we need as many hands as we can get."

"You made everyone else rest for at least a few hours," Jonas pointed out. "We can do this one of two ways. You can go by yourself, or I can have Teal'c carry you." 

She snorted softly. 

"I wasn't joking," he told her seriously. "Go on, before you collapse. The last thing they need in there right now is one more patient." 

"Thank you, Jonas."

"For what?"

"Being you," she answered, hugging him.

He grinned sheepishly, returning the hug for a long moment. "Get some rest, Janet, huh?"

She nodded, recognizing the wisdom of what he was saying. She would do more harm than good exhausted, so she left ordered to be woken up immediately if anyone got worse or if she was needed and she gratefully retreated to her room for a few hours of sleep. 

***

Daniel was muttering to himself in an old Hellenic dialect when Jack entered his office, pouring over several volumes at once.

"Could you repeat that, Daniel? 'Cause it's Greek to me."

"Cute," Daniel replied flatly, not looking up from his book. "How are they?" he asked hesitantly, glancing up at his CO and praying a silent thanks that Jack had not been on the mission as well.

"We lost three overnight," Jack answered quietly.

"Ouch..." Daniel closed his book and rose. "That's horrible."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," he sighed, nodding. He had seen a _lot_ of missions go bad in his time, but he would _never_ get used to disaster on that scope. He never wanted to, either.

"How's Sam holding up?"

"Oh, I gave her a pill and put her to bed..." He trailed off, wincing at his wording. "Made her go to bed," he amended. Eager to change the subject, he quickly asked, "Who's Cybil?" 

"What?" Daniel asked, blinking at the question. He did not think he knew anyone named Cybil.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Greek mythology, Daniel. Who was Cybil?"

"Oh, no. No, no..." Daniel shook his head, walking back to his desk and retrieving a book, gesturing for Jack to join him. "It's a title, not an actual name."

"Title _for_?" Jack prompted. Daniel was slipping into his excited academic mode again, and in that mood he often forgot that not everyone around him had PhDs in whatever subject he happened to be rambling on about. 

"A priestess of Apollo, distinguished by her ability to... see the future," he finished quietly, his mind immediately turning to Sam. "Why?" he asked quietly, not for one second wanting an answer.

"Remember Delphi? When we were being interrogated?"

"Not something I'm likely to forget any time soon," Daniel assured him with an expressive grimace, rubbing the back of his head.

"The white-haired chick? Carter hear Apollo call her Cybil." 

"Oh, okay. So she'd probably be his high priestess, which makes sense since--"

"Daniel!" Jack interrupted before he could get started. "Sam's pretty sure that Cybil drugged her."

Daniel's eyes widened. "Oh... well, that can't be a coincidence."

Jack shook his head. "No." 

Daniel rose. "Well, we've got to tell Doctor... Oh, no, I guess she's pretty busy right now..."

"Oh, yeah." Jack nodded. "Jonas was going to try to talk her into getting a few hours of sleep, but she's got her hands full. Which is where we come in."

"Us?" Daniel asked blankly, blinking.

"Yup. We just got drafted to research everything related to Apollo, Cybil, and prophecy in general. Maybe with starting with whether any of your myths mention any drug that can make a person see the future."

"Oh, that's easy. There are several recorded historical instances of shamans in various tribal cultures using certain plants to induce hallucinations which are believed to be--"

"Good," Jack interrupted. "Let's start making a list."

***

"Carter!" Jack exclaimed, rising as the Jaffa returned her to the holding cell. He stopped, frowning and narrowing his eyes at her. "Why are you wearing a toga?"

"I don't know, sir," she answered honestly, taking a step towards him and stumbling. 

"Whoa, take it easy," Jack said, closing the distance between them and catching her in his arms. "Let's get you sitting down," he suggested.

She nodded faintly, allowing him to help her sit and glancing at the others. Daniel was asleep and Teal'c who appeared to be meditating. "How are they?"

"They'll be fine," Jack said with false confidence. "What about you?"

"I don't know. I feel so strange. Weak..."

"Yeah, torture _will_ do that to a girl," he pointed out. 

She smiled faintly, nodding. "What about you, sir?"

"Oh, I'm just peachy."

A girl wearing nothing but a dirty, torn tunic crawled towards them. "They say you came through the Ring of the Gods," she whispered, staring up at them through a sheet of matted hair. "Are you here to free us?"

"Miss, we're not in much of a position to free _anyone_ right now," Jack pointed out.

She pushed her hair up, revealing gaunt features, pale in spite of the heavy layer of dirt covering her, and dull eyes far too large for her face. 

"If one of us were to free _you_, would you free _us_?" she asked more insistently. 

"And how are you going to do that?" Jack asked.

"I used to serve in the palace until I displeased Apollo. I still have many friends among his attendants."

Sam shot a sideways glance at Jack to gauge his reaction. He definitely looked interested.

"Can you get a message to one of them?"

She nodded faintly. "It would be no difficult matter."

"What's your name?" Sam asked gently.

"Calpurnia."

"Calpurnia, how did you end up here?"

"I was serving lord Apollo and his sister their evening meal. I stumbled and spilled hot soup on his hand."

"And for that you ended up here?" Jack asked, staring at her. "Typical Gua'old..."

"How long have you been in here?" Sam asked.

"I do not know exactly. Many years, I think."

"God," she whispered, disgusted.

"There are many here as innocent as I, lives which might still be saved..."

Jack nodded. "You do what you can, we'll do what we can."

"My thanks," she whispered, tears filling her eyes. "What will you need?"

***

Sam jumped awake, and pulled on a bathrobe, not even bothering to dress before leaving her room and walking to Daniel's office.

"We promised to _help_ those people," she announced without preamble. 

Both men looked up, startled. 

"Sam, you should be resting," Daniel said, rising. "You look like death warmed over."

"I look better than Calpurnia looked when we promised her we'd help _her_," she retorted.

"Come on, Carter, it wasn't tenable and you know it," Jack protested, belatedly climbing to his feet as well. "None of us were fit to lead a team back there."

"And now we are." She shook her head. "I'm not asking to go myself. I know the General wouldn't let me, but _you_ can go. You can take SG-2 and--"

"And _what_?" he challenged, shaking his head. "Carter, after last night, we just don't have the personnel."

She glared at him for a long moment before turning and stalking off. She was aware that people were staring at her as she stalked through the halls of the SGC in her bathrobe, but she could not have cared less, she marched straight to the General's office and entered without knocking.

"Yes, sir, Mister President. I understand," Hammond said into the red phone, hanging up. "Major?" he asked, staring at her in surprise. "Is something the matter?"

"Delphi, sir. We promised to rescue those people."

"Given the current situation, we simply don't have the resources, Major. I'm sorry."

The fact that he obviously meant the apology did nothing to assuage her annoyance. "They saved our lives!"

"For which I am grateful to them, but that does not change what is going on here at present. I can not commit any more teams off-world on non-essential missions until I can get replacements trained for the men and women we lost last night. Besides, morale here being what it is right now, I'm not sure I'd run the risk of sending a team off-world into a hostile situation."

"But..."

"I'm sorry, Major." He looked up. "Yes, Jonas?" he sighed.

"I just saw Major Carter walk by, sir, thought I'd bring her back to her room."

"You do that, son." Hammond gave him a grateful look. "Get some rest, Major," he added, his tone making the suggestion an order.

Sam frowned, but allowed Jonas to take her by the arm and steer her back towards her room.

"We promised to save those people," she repeated, frustrated.

"I know," Jonas murmured. "But the way you're acting isn't going to convince anyone. You're exhausted. You're not thinking straight. You need to rest. _Then_ you can argue this with them."

"I'm going stir-crazy in this place, Jonas," she sighed as they reentered her room. "I need to get _out_!"

_Get** out**!_

She shivered.

"Sam?"

"These damned visions are starting to get to me when I'm awake now..."

"Maybe that's because you took a sleeping pill less than three hours ago. You're as good as sleep-walking right now," he pointed out. "Get some rest."

"How the hell am I supposed to go to sleep when I know what's waiting for me once I get there?" she demanded, shaking her fists in front of her face in frustration. 

"I'll sit up with you," Jonas offered, gently covering her hands with his own. People were starting to stare. Better to continue the conversation in her quarters.

"You keep doing that. People are going to get ideas."

"Don't worry, the Colonel and I had a long talk."

Sam's head shot up and she stared at him with wide eyes, stunned.

"Well, he _is_ who you were thinking of, right?" Jonas shrugged and gestured for her to get into bed. "Don't worry. I didn't tell him any of the things we talked about. I just made it perfectly clear to him that you remind me of Hannah."

"I remind you of your sister?" she asked, startled. 

"Not even a little," he admitted blithely. "But it seemed to put the Colonel's mind at rest."

"Jonas, you've officially been in politics _way_ too long," Sam informed him, shaking her head and climbing into bed.

"I know. And I look forward to an early retirement just as soon as the fistfights stop breaking out in Council," he assured her, tucking her in. "Now get some rest."

Sam nodded and closed her eyes. "Jonas, if I don't remind you of your sister, who _do_ I remind you of?"

"You don't want to know," he whispered, pressing his lips to her forehead. 

Sam's eyes shot open and she stared up at him. "What was that for?"

He shook his head faintly. "It doesn't matter," he assured her.

"Okay..." She stared up at him uncertainly for a moment before relaxing again. "Jonas, you have to help me convince them to help those people."

"I'll do everything I can," he promised. "_After_ you wake up."

Sam did not need much more convincing than that. She was physically and emotionally exhausted and still very much under the influence of her sleeping pill. Wakefulness was quickly replaced by dark semi-awareness and then by welcomed oblivion. 

Jonas watched her with a sad smile. "Her name was Sarah," he whispered to the sleeping woman. 

Sarah Benedict, the first girl he had ever pulled his nose out of his books long enough to notice. He had, of course, met her in the University library, a location which his fellow academics had dubbed his 'natural habitat'. It had been hers, too. Those had been the best of times, both young and idealistic and sure that things could not turn out any other way than perfect. 

He had proposed after fewer than six months of knowing her, and she had happily accepted. She had wanted the wedding to be right away, but Jonas had asked her to wait. He wanted to graduate, to have a job, to be able to take care of her. It was not long to wait, he had assured her. It had been his last term in college and the government had already offered him a research position. So she had agreed to wait. 

And then she became ill.

He had dropped out of school then and there, spending all day, every day at her bedside, ministering to the sick woman. It was ironic, considering. He had always wanted to take care of her, and now he was. She had lasted for three months, months in which she had slowly wasted away to almost nothing. 

He had thrown himself back into his studies, then, needing the distraction. And that was exactly what physics had been to him for a lot of years, nothing more than a distraction from the pain of Sarah's death. When he had grown to love the science itself, it filled that empty place she had left in his heart. He could not get enough. And like any junkie, he did anything he could to get more, right down to ignoring his own conscience when it _screamed_ at him that he was going too far. The things that sheer loneliness could drive a man to do and allow were absolutely appalling as he sat here in his friend's presence reflecting on them. 

He looked up at a tap on the door, quickly wiping away his tears as it opened and the Colonel walked in.

"How is she?"

"Resting. No dreams yet."

"Good," Jack murmured. "You tired? You look like you could use some rest."

"I don't think I could sleep if I wanted to," Jonas told him honestly.

"You okay, Jonas?" Jack asked quietly, closing the door. "You don't look so great."

"I'm fine. Just thinking."

"About?"

"I've done some things in my life that I'm not proud of..." he started.

"Haven't we all?" Jack sighed, shaking his head. "You're only human, Jonas. And not even _you_ can be perfect." 

"I don't want to be perfect, but I wouldn't mind being able to look myself in the mirror every morning, either."

"Oh, so _that's_ what's up with the new hairdo. I was wondering..."

Jonas snorted softly. Trust the Colonel. "Did you want to spend some time with Sam?" he offered.

"Well, after spending a few hours going over botany textbooks with Daniel, I could use some time in a dark room. If you want to stay, I can go crash in mine. Otherwise, I figured I'd sit up with Carter."

Jonas nodded faintly, rising. "I'll go see if Daniel needs any help."

"Bring coffee," Jack advised. "Otherwise he's likely to Zat you for interrupting him."

Jonas grinned and saluted sharply before turning and leaving the room, obediently making a detour to the commissary for a cup of coffee. The airman on duty helpfully told him which was Daniel's favorite, and he got two large cups of it in spite of the fact that he never touched it himself. Daniel was devoted to his coffee the way most people were to their gods. He heard the sound of Daniel sniffing the air well before he reached the office.

"Hey, Doctor Jackson," he greeted him, extending the cup. "I thought I'd come spell Jack for awhile."

"He with Sam, then?" Daniel asked, accepting the coffee with a grateful nod.

"Yeah. We decided that she probably shouldn't sleep without someone there to keep an eye on her."

"Huh, probably not," he agreed, glancing at Jonas' bruise. It was even larger now than it had been when he stepped through the Gate. "She really did that to you?"

"Yeah." Jonas nodded. "I was afraid she'd hurt herself..."

"She very well could have," Daniel agreed, nodding. "Here, have a seat. Right now, I'm looking up plants and drugs that are associated with visions and prophecies. I'm still on earth, if you want to start looking at what we have on alien cultures."

"Sure," Jonas agreed readily, reaching for the stack of books Daniel indicated. 

"Anything like that on your planet?"

"Not that I know of." Jonas shook his head.

"Guess you don't really need it on your planet," Daniel noted. "Sam told me about your sister."

"Well, we're the exception... I mean, most of my people would think it's absolutely ridiculous to believe that you could see the future."

"Just like here then?"

"Pretty much." He nodded. "I mean, maybe there are people on this planet who can do it, too. I've heard that some people here claim to be able to. Maybe it's a trait that can potentially exist in all human populations, just so rare that no one really believes it's anything other than a myth." 

"Well, if life at the SGC has taught me one thing, it's that myth tends to be more grounded in reality than reality usually is."

"There's one particular myth that comes to mind," Jonas observed quietly. "A priestess of Apollo, name of Cassandra..."

"I know the one." Daniel nodded. "Refused to sleep with him, so he cursed her with second sight."

"Only she could only ever see horrible tragedies and cataclysms. And no one ever believed her."

Daniel nodded again. "And it eventually drove her mad," he finished, frowning slightly. 

"One difference here," Jonas said, noticing Daniel's obvious discomfiture at the thought and wanting to reassure him. "We _do_ believe her. And we _are _going to help her." 

  



	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"This isn't working," Daniel announced with a sigh, slamming the book he was leafing through. "Even if we could find a plant that induces visions, it wouldn't stay in her system for two weeks... The visions would be getting better by now."

"And instead they're getting worse," Jonas sighed, nodding and closing his own book. "Nanites?" he suggested.

Daniel shook his head. "No, Janet automatically checks for those since Jack got infected." 

"So what does that leave?" Jonas asked, as much of himself as of Daniel. 

"I don't know, but I think it's time to bring this to Janet." 

"Like she doesn't have her hands full enough already," Jonas said, shaking his head and rising. "I can go talk to Janet if you want to keep looking here," he offered. 

"Thanks. I still have a few more myths I want to go through."

Jonas nodded and headed for the infirmary. Janet was checking Crawford's vitals when he entered. 

"How is he?"

"He might actually make it," she answered, double-checking his IV before turning to face Jonas. "But I don't think he's ever going to walk again," she added, sighing softly.  

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "What about the others?"

"Pulling through. Crawford's the only one who still may not recover. A lot of the others might never serve again, but they'll all live." She shook her head, rubbing her neck. God, what a nightmare... And the timing could not possibly have been worse given Sam's problems. 

"When's the last time you ate?" Jonas asked abruptly.

"I, uh..." Janet tried to think, gave up, and just shook her head.

"Come on," Jonas said, taking her arm. "Let's go get something to eat."

"Why do I get the feeling that this isn't social?"

"Probably because it's not," Jonas sighed. "Seriously, though, Janet, we need to get you out of this place for a little while. The smell alone--"

"Smell?" Janet repeated blankly. 

Jonas shook his head. The infirmary reeked of burnt flesh and antiseptic and she did not even notice it any more. _Definitely_ time for some fresh air. Or, as fresh as the air came several hundred feet underground. 

"Come on, Janet..."

***

"Well, off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen drugs that cause hallucinations, but _visions_?" Janet asked, shaking her head and picking at her slice of pecan pie. "Besides, drugs don't usually stay in the system this long."

"Something else, then? What about... Zartac conditioning? Something like that?"

"Well, we could always get Anise to come test her, but..."

"But you trust her about as much as the Colonel does?" Jonas guessed.

Janet nodded and took a bite of her pie. "Besides, this doesn't even slightly resemble what you see with Zartac conditioning. If that's what it were, she wouldn't be aware that anything was wrong."

"What's that leave?"

"Gene resequencing, maybe, like what Nirrti did to you."

"No growths," he pointed out.

"True," Janet agreed. "But if you consider that Apollo's been associated with prophecy for several thousand years already, he'd have had more time to refine any sort of techniques he may have developed." 

Jonas nodded faintly. "That's true."

"A PET scan might be in order," Janet decided, nodding to herself. "Her neurotransmitters are all over the place, probably her brain activity as well. That might be the difference between your case and hers. Different brain activity and chemistry as opposed to actual structural changes."

He nodded faintly. "When are you going to let her go off-world again?"

"Not until the nightmares stop at the very least. Those alone make her a danger to herself and her teammates."

"She wants to go back to Delphi." 

Janet stared at him with wide eyes. "That's insane!" she protested.

"They promised to help those people," Jonas replied, shrugging. "Sam's a woman of her word." 

"You can't actually agree with her?" Janet asked, shaking her head. "Jonas, Apollo wants to make her his Queen! You honestly think the General is _ever_ going to let her go back there?"

"Those people need help. Sam told me what it was like in the prison-camp."

She shook her head. "We don't have the people right now, Jonas. You know that as well as I do."

"You have SG-1."

"Sam can _not_ go back to that planet," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."

"So what happens to those people?" he asked. 

She shook her head faintly. "I... I'm sorry, Jonas. There's just too much else going on now. Even if I could clear Sam for off-world activities, she can't be allowed to go back to Delphi." 

Jonas sighed softly but nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, Janet was right.

***

"Mister Quinn has offered to join SG-1 until Major Carter is cleared for active duty again," Hammond told Jack. Sighing, he added, "But we're still several teams short of a full compliment." 

"And most of them needed elsewhere," Jack agreed, sighing and nodding. Between Anubis' rise to power, Sam's condition, and the recent disaster, things were very rapidly going to hell in a hand basket. "But I still want to go back to Delphi, sir. Carter's right. We made a promise. Those people saved our lives. Sam would be a host by now if it weren't for them." 

Hammond sighed and nodded faintly, rubbing his forehead. "You have a go."

"Thank you, sir." Jack nodded. "I appreciate it."

"Just don't make me regret it," Hammond suggested. "I can't afford to lose any more personnel." 

"Gee, sir, I didn't know you cared."

Hammond rolled his eyes faintly. "Good luck, Colonel."

"Thank you, sir. Something tells me we're going to need it."

"Sir!" Sam called, running up to Jack as he left the office.

"He said yes."

"That's great."

"You're still grounded."

"But," she protested.

"Ah!" he interrupted, raising one finger. "No buts, Carter. Jonas is filling in for you. And the General wants to see you after Janet's done with her latest round of tests."

Sam sighed and nodded, conceding defeat. "Good luck, sir."

"Thanks. Have fun with your tests."

She snorted softly, shaking her head. 

***

"Okay, now, just relax," Janet advised as the neurologists finished wiring Sam for the PET scan. 

"Right," Sam agreed, nodding. 

"You need to hold your head still," one of the neurologists informed her. 

_Hold her head still._

Sam shivered, recognizing the voice. Cybil. 

"Sam?" Janet asked, frowning. 

"Nothing, nothing. Just... thinking about Delphi."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be the first one to know when they get back," Janet assured her.

"Yeah," Sam agreed quietly. "Let's get this over with."

"Just relax and don't fight it," Janet suggested.

_She's fighting it..._

**_Let_**_ her. It won't help._

"Whoa," the imaging technician muttered. "We just got a huge spike in frontal-lobe activity."

"Sam, what were you just thinking about?" Janet asked quietly.

"I told you, Delphi." 

"Memories or..."

"I don't _know_," Sam muttered, frustrated.

"Okay, let's try to focus on the thoughts, whatever they are. See if you can get more."

"Right," she whispered, closing her eyes.

_She's fighting it..._

_Why do you fight this honor?_

"Damn, no!" Sam half-shouted, her hands shooting up to wrap protectively around the back of her neck. She could _feel_ the damned thing trying to burrow its way in. "No, no, _no_!" she protested.

Janet stared at her, wide-eyed for a moment before reacting. "Sam, relax. You're here, _safe_."

"You really think so?" Sam scoffed, shaking her head and tugging at the electrodes attached to her temples. "Damn it, Janet, she's _calling_ to me! She wants me back!"

"Well, she's not going to _get_ you back," Janet pointed out firmly, catching Sam's wrists in her hands. "We won't let that happen."

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Sam asked bitterly, biting back tears. 

"What the hell's wrong with her?" the technician asked. "Her brain activity's all over the map. She shouldn't even be conscious with some of these levels."

"What's wrong with her is classified," Janet informed him, never taking her eyes from Sam. "Just _relax_," she suggested.

"But it _hurts_," Sam protested quietly. "Get it _out_! Get out of me! Get out, damn it!" 

"You," Janet said, pointing to an orderly. "Xanax, two mils. Go. Sam, look at me!" she ordered. "_Look_ at me!"

Shaking, Sam did as directed.

"You are in a military hospital in Colorado Springs," Janet told her firmly. "Your last CT scan indicated _no_ foreign presence. You're alone in there."

"I don't _feel_ alone," Sam whispered, staring desperately up at her. "You have to help me, Janet. Make this stop..."

"I'll do my best," she promised, nodding and accepting a full syringe from the orderly. "This will help you relax," she promised. "And in the meantime, just remember that we're here to _help_ you."

"Not that much," she murmured, shaking her head. "It'll make me tired."

"Sam, you have to _rest_," Janet reminded her calmly. "Remember, we discussed this. I want to get some scans of your brain-activity while you're sleeping, too."

She nodded weakly in response, rolling up her sleeve and offering her arm. "Let's get this over with."

***

"I've never seen anything like it," the neurologist told Janet. "Her brain activity is... it's everywhere." 

"But it's not consistent with a mental disorder?"

He shook his head. "No, not even slightly. You do see abnormal brain activity and brain chemistry with some mental disorders, but not in these patterns. The closest comparison I could draw would be some kind of psychotropic drug. Maybe a hallucinogen." 

Janet nodded faintly. 

"How long has she been like this?"

"A few weeks now."

"And you're positive that there's no way she could be getting any drugs?"

"Yeah." Janet sighed softly, accepting the neurologist's report. "Thank you."

"Good luck."

  
"Thank you. I'll need it." Shaking her head, Janet went to join Sam. 

"Well?"

"We're still a little in the dark," Janet admitted, sitting down across from Sam. "You didn't fight as much this time," she noted.

"Well, I _couldn't_. I was strapped down," Sam explained, shrugging.

Janet blinked. Sam had spoken as though the fact should have been obvious. It was obvious that the line between vision and reality was thinning, and that was not promising. 

  
"Sam, how are you feeling?" she asked. 

Sam shrugged faintly, rubbing her forehead. "Little groggy from the drugs." 

"You don't look good," Janet said, leaning forward and touching Sam's cheek. "And you're running a fever," she announced, frowning.

"It's probably just that virus that's been going around the SGC." 

"Virus," Janet repeated quietly, shaking her head. "How did I miss that?" she demanded of no one in particular, jumping to her feet.

"Uh, Janet?" Sam asked, rising and following the doctor as she scuttled from the room. "Where are we going?"

"Phlebotomy." 

Sam groaned softly, shaking her head. "Why?"

Janet spun to face her. "It could be a retrovirus doing this to you. That would be great!"

"It would?" Sam asked, eyeing her uncertainly. 

"Well, sure! We get you on a course of antivirals..."

Sam's eyes widened. "And this stops happening to me."

"Exactly! Come on."

  
Sam nodded and followed Janet through the hall at a half-run.

***

"So we started her on the antivirals this morning at the hospital and we're working on cracking the virus' code," Janet reported to Hammond. 

He nodded, scanning her hastily thrown-together report. She had written it out longhand on the drive back to the facility and her handwriting made it clear that the ride had been a bumpy one.  "Will this cure her or only prevent her from getting worse?" 

"That's unclear at this stage," Janet admitted. "Which is part of the reason why we're working so hard on analyzing the retrovirus. The truth is that, even with it out of her system, she might still get visions. Her brain chemistry has been very seriously altered. According to the neurologist, her waking brain activity looks more like REM sleep than anything. And when she _does_ go to sleep, her brain starts working on a completely different level. He's going to need to review the results before he can be more specific." 

"So worst case is that she continues getting visions, but she doesn't deteriorate any more?"

"Yeah." Janet nodded faintly. "And Jonas is proof positive that a person _can_ learn to live with visions."

He nodded. "When can we expect to see her fit for active duty again?"

"It's hard to say," Janet said, shrugging. "First we have to find an antiviral that works on this particular bug. After that, a lot is going to depend on whether Sam begins to recover or not." 

"Okay." He nodded and closed the report, handing it back to her. "Get this typed, will you? My old eyes aren't as good as they used to be." 

Janet accepted the report with a grin. "Sorry, sir. I'll have a more comprehensive... and legible report for you by morning." 

"Well done, Doctor," he told her, rising. "It was a good catch."

"Thank you, sir." She looked up as the warning claxons started going off. 

"**_Unscheduled off-world activation!_**"

"Better get down to the Gate-room," Hammond suggested with a sigh. "You might be needed."

Janet sighed and nodded, heading that way as Hammond started for the observation deck.

"Janet! Is it them?" Sam asked, jogging to join her.

"I don't know."

Sam nodded and patted her arm before jogging off. 

"It's SG1, sir," Sergeant Davis reported. "They're taking heavy fire."

Hammond sighed softly, nodding. "Open the iris." He looked up, nodding towards Sam. "Major."

"Sir."

"Janet just brought me up to date," he told her. 

He opened his mouth to continue, but stopped as people started pouring into the Gate-room through the wormhole. There were dozens of them, at least fifty so far, all emaciated and filthy, some wearing little more than rags. They huddled on the ramp, some physically carrying others, all looking around with blatant fear and uncertainty. The last stream of people through the wormhole were all armed, mostly with staff-weapons, and were running backwards or firing over their shoulders. He held his breath until four familiar figures brought up the rear. Next to him, Sam heaved a sigh of relief, then turned and hurried into the Gate-room. 

A familiar girl carrying a staff-weapon started for her the moment she saw her, letting out a startled yelp as several soldiers leveled guns at her.

"It's okay. Stand down," Sam ordered. "Calpurnia," she greeted the girl.

"I knew you would come back," she said quietly. "The others doubted, but I had faith in you and your friends. The Tau'ri are a noble race indeed." She extended the staff-weapon to Sam. "We are grateful." 

"We had a deal," Sam pointed out, accepting it from her. 

The others started quickly laying down their own weapons as well, noticing that the weapons leveled at Calpurnia were immediately lowered when she relinquished hers.

"God, I've missed that!" Jonas announced, exhaling deeply and smiling.

"You _miss_ running fire-fights, do you?" Daniel asked, staring at Jonas and scratching the back of his neck. "I see..."

"Trust me, that was a _lot_ less scary than an average Council-meeting," Jonas assured him cheerfully. 

"I'm sure it was, judging from some of the reports I've been reading," Hammond said, walking into the Gate-room. "Doctor, if you'll start processing these good folks, I'll see if we can't find some decent clothes and accommodations for them."

  
"Yes, sir," Janet said, turning to start directing her medical teams.

"The rest of you, debriefing in one hour. Dismissed."

"What happened?" Sam asked Jonas. The Colonel and the others were busily assisting the medical teams in the task of triaging and assessing the refuges. 

"It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, Sam," Jonas told her honestly. "The minute we showed up, these people, almost to the man, start attacking the guards. Some of them were so weak that they couldn't walk, so the others carried them from their cells. And then Calpurnia grabs a staff-weapon from one of the Jaffa and raids the armory with two or three others." He shook his head. "You don't see cooperation like that on my planet."

Sam glanced at the very substantial pile of staff-weapons on the ramp and nodded faintly. "Have those brought to the armory," she directed one of the soldiers. 

"So, any luck on your end?" Jonas asked.

"Yeah, actually. Janet thinks she's cracked it."

He grinned widely. "That's great!" His smile faded slightly, replaced by a weary expression. "I guess that means I get to go home." 

"Well, I'm not clear for active duty yet," Sam pointed out. "You stay as long as you want."

"Sam, I could kiss you right now," he informed her gravely.

"Just don't let the Colonel see," she laughed, shaking her head as she and Jonas moved to help the others.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Sorry it's taking me so long to get these chapters up. RL is attacking with a real vengeance. I'll try not to keep you waiting nearly this long for the next chapter. Enjoy

**Chapter 8**

"One hundred and thirty-eight refuges," Janet announced at the briefing. "According to Calpurnia, there were over two hundred in her section of the prison camp."

"Yeah, a lot fell in the initial attack against the Jaffa," Jack said, nodding faintly. "I'm honestly surprised we got this many through." 

The General nodded faintly. "The real question at this point is what we're going to do with them now that we've rescued them." 

"The Land of Light," Jonas said. When everyone turned to stare at him, he shrugged. "They still owe you guys and the culture's materially similar to Delphi. It seems like a good option." 

"But will they _accept_ over a hundred refugees?" Jack asked, eyeing him thoughtfully.

"You'd have to ask them that one, sir," Jonas answered, rubbing his forehead. 

He hated the way people were starting to assume he knew everything. It would have been easier if he had. Except for the very real likelihood of it driving him crazy before he could do much good.

"Sir, permission to be part of the delegation to the Land of Light?" Sam asked abruptly. Aware that everyone was now staring at her, she shifted uncomfortably. "It isn't exactly a hostile environment," she pointed out.

Hammond conceded that with a shrug. "Doctor?"

"I'd like to keep her over night for observation, but if she doesn't manifest any symptoms in that time, I don't see how it could do any harm. She's already been asymptomatic for almost twelve hours which is a record."

He nodded faintly. "SG-1 leaves tomorrow."

"Uh, sir," Jonas began.

"You, too, son, if the Colonel has no objections."

"None at all, sir," Jack answered, shrugging. 

He really did enjoy having Jonas around again, if only because he could keep Daniel distracted for long periods of time, periods during which _he_ did not have to listen to the archaeologist rambling on about things that he could not begin to understand even if he had wanted to. Just as well to have another brainiac along for Daniel to talk to. Delphi had him in one of his ebullient moods, and Jack would rather have had his full attention free to keep an eye on Carter.

"Dismissed," Hammond told them, rising.

"Sir," Sam said, rising and following him. "Thank you."

Hammond smiled faintly and nodded his understanding. "I know how frustrating this experience has been for you, Major. I can't endanger SG-1, but I _am_ sympathetic."

"I appreciate it."

"Just don't--" He paused, sighing deeply. "This is an election-year, Major." 

"I know," she whispered, nodding faintly. Kinsey in the Whitehouse. Talk about a recipe for disaster at the SGC. 

"Get some rest," Hammond advised, patting her arm. 

"Yes, sir." She nodded and turned to leave, nearly bumping into Jonas. "Oh, hey."

"Problem?" he asked, concerned. 

She nodded. "Yeah. One you can identify with. Politics."

Jonas made a face, shaking his head. "It's the same on every planet, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately." Sam sighed and shook her head. "Hey, you want to grab a bite to eat? Tell me about Delphi?"  
  


"Uh, _no_ actually," Jonas murmured, shaking his head faintly and slinging an arm around her shoulder. "Jack is hovering in the briefing room. I think he's hoping you'll come back through. Something tells me that _he_ has dibs on the honor." 

"Does it?" she asked, shaking her head.

"You know, I _do_ occasionally make honest guesses," he pointed out, grinning wryly. 

"Is this one of those times?"

"Nope," he answered blithely, giving her shoulder a squeeze and half-skipping off.

Sam stared after him, shaking her head, before returning to the briefing room where Jack was indeed standing, staring down at the Gate.

"Sir?"

"Carter!" he greeted her, spinning. "So, all those tests finally showed something up, huh?" 

"Actually it was more like a lucky guess, sir. The tests just confirmed it."

"Well, either way, it's good to have you back on active duty."

"Thank you, sir. It's good to be back. How did things go on Delphi?"

"Funny, I could have sworn I saw you and Jonas chatting in the Gate-room when we came back. I figured that's what you were talking about."

Sam blinked to hear what sounded suspiciously like jealousy from her CO. "He gave me the bare bones, yes, sir. But thirty seconds isn't really enough to _describe_ anything..."

"No, I guess it's not." He glanced at the clock. "I'll tell you all about it over lunch."

"Thank you, sir." Sam nodded and followed him from the briefing room, smiling to herself.

***

Jonas had considered visiting the infirmary to see how Janet was holding up, but detoured to his temporary quarters instead. He was not particularly up to smiling at anyone else this afternoon. Nearby, Sam and Jack were discussing Delphi. Or maybe their conversation had already meandered from that course and they were talking and laughing. Dessert would come next, and Sam would have a smear of whipped-cream on her cheek. Jack would lean across the table and absently wipe it away with one finger. Most natural thing in the world, really. 

How many times had he done the same with Sarah or Hannah? Sarah would always flush and bow her head, embarrassed to have missed it herself, especially in front of her love. Hannah would always giggle a protest at her brother's behavior. In the vision, Sam had flushed and bowed her head. 

"It's not fair," he muttered to no one in particular, dropping onto the bed and riffling through one of his bags. 

The drawing of Sarah had been his chief concern when he defected. Having seen Major Carter, and with considerable surprise the first time, he had been shocked by the physical similarities between the two. The drawing would have been easy to misinterpreted when they found it -- it had gone without saying that they would search his luggage. They _had_, but had missed the drawing, carefully hidden away in the cover of his journal. They had read _that_, more than once, probably, but they had not found the drawing, carefully executed by his own hand. Sarah had loved that drawing, claiming he had made her look prettier than she could make herself. 

_You hang on **so** tight..._

Smiling to himself, he carefully peeled back the covering of the journal and retrieved the drawing. The similarities to Sam were not by any means absolute. Sarah had more meat on her bones, longer hair, black eyes... but they could have passed for sisters at least.

The doorknob turned and he cursed softly, aware that he had forgotten to lock it. He quickly tucked the picture between two journal pages and looked up, his expression innocent. 

"Jonas, how are you?" Janet asked, leaning in. "I didn't get a chance to talk to you before the briefing."

"I'm fine, Janet. Come in," he offered, rising. 

"Well, maybe just for a minute. I have a lot of patients..."

"What else is new?" he asked, laying the journal on his desk. 

"Jonas, you're losing pages," Janet told him, pointing at it.

He looked and saw one edge of the drawing sticking out. "Oh, that's nothing," he assured her, reaching for it.

"I recall it being in better shape this time last year," Janet said, frowning mildly. "None of the pages looked ready to fall out."

Jonas cringed as she reached for it, knowing that he could not keep her from seeing it without raising questions.

"Jonas?" Janet asked, staring at the picture. "Is this Sam?"

"No." He shook his head faintly. "It's Sarah."

Janet's eyes widened faintly. "_This_ is Sarah? She... she looks so much like Sam."

"I'd noticed," he answered quietly.

"God, that must be hard on you." She sighed and placed the picture on the desk, face-down. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." He shook his head and retrieved the drawing, replacing it in the cover of the journal. "Mostly it just makes me wonder 'what if', you know?"

She nodded faintly, sitting on his bed. "I wonder that myself an awful lot."

He sighed and sat down next to her, shaking his head. "She could have used a doctor like you. Maybe things _would_ have been different." 

"Jonas," she sighed, shaking her head. They had been through this before, more than once. 

"I know." He nodded faintly, leaning into her shoulder. 

Janet stared down at him in surprise. He was a friendly man, but not generally so demonstrative. He must have felt so lonely at that moment. She sighed and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, shaking her head.

"Sometimes I wish she'd survived and sometimes I wish I'd never helped her that day in the library," Jonas murmured, shaking his head. 

"And sometimes I wish my ex-husband had never been born," Janet pointed out. "Wishing... it only makes things harder, Jonas. We can't see the future. Well... most of us can't..."

Jonas smiled and straightened, shaking his head. "I know. I just... life would have been different. You know, last year, someone mistook Sam and I for a married couple. It felt so great. I mean, not because I feel anything like that for Sam, necessarily, but because... I don't know."

  
"Because it feels nice to think about what it is to be loved, maybe?" Janet asked quietly. "Because of the 'what if' factor?"

"Probably," he agreed with a sigh. "You'd have made a good psychiatrist."

"Jonas, I almost flunked my introductory psychology course as an undergrad," she informed him, shaking her head. "I'd have been a disaster." 

"I beg to differ." He smiled down at her. "Don't ever change, Janet."

"I hadn't planned on it."

He opened his mouth to respond, but paused, closing his eyes and grasping her shoulder.

"Jonas?" she asked, alarmed.

He did not respond for several moments and when he did, his voice was stilted. "I'm okay. Just... you know..."

"Another vision? What of, Jonas?" she asked. He was getting used to them, not usually so visibly affected by them.

"Don't ever change," he repeated. Shaking his head, he bent and brushed his lips across hers. "Don't ever change…"

Janet stared up at him with wide eyes. "Jonas?"

"You are so compassionate. I've always loved that about you. The first time I came here, when I'd defected... I was so scared, sure your people would just throw me in a cell somewhere for what had happened. You picked up on that. You talked to me, like I was a normal person. I know Doctor Jackson _had_ to have been on your mind, but I never saw it in you. Even Sam... you could see her pain, no matter how cheerful she seemed."

"Jonas," she sighed, shaking her head. "Don't do this."

"How's Crawford?" he asked abruptly.

"He'll pull through." 

"I'm glad. You've saved so many lives here." He shook his head. "And you saved my sanity a few times. For what that's worth. I get _visions_."

She snorted softly, shaking her head. "_Not_ always proof of insanity around here."

"True," he admitted, shrugging and yawning. "Sorry."

"No, no." She shook her head. "You must be exhausted. You just had a running fire-fight over ten miles of rugged terrain." 

He gave a faint nod, not answering.

"I'll let you get some rest," she said, rising.

Jonas rose as well, walking to the door with her. He pulled her into a hug before she could open the door. "Don't ever change," he whispered again.

"I promise," she answered, hugging him back. "You know where to find me if you need to talk."

"We're still on for supper, right?"

"Any time."

"Great. Maybe tomorrow? If I'm on-planet."

"If you're on-planet, Cassie and I would love to have you." She smiled up at him and gave his shoulder a squeeze before turning and leaving, faintly troubled by his behavior.

***

Jonas sighed softly, staring up at the night sky with a faint smile. 

  
"What are you thinking about?"

"You, Sarah," he answered without tearing his eyes from the stars. "Us."

She smiled faintly, rolling onto her stomach and grinning over at him. "You, too?"

He rolled to face her. "The government's offered me a job in one of their research labs when I graduate. The money's very good."

"That's good. I'm glad," she answered quietly, not sure if he was going where she _hoped_ he was.

"It would be more than enough to take care of a family," he continued, not quite looking at her. "Uh, I… Sarah…"

"I'd love to."

"You would?" he asked hopefully, staring at her with wide eyes. "Really?"

"Well, you don't have to sound so surprised," she chuckled, shaking her head. "Would I be sitting with you on a hillside commonly known as lover's lookout if I wouldn't? I mean, _midterms_ are next week, after all..." 

Jonas laughed along with her. "That's right. I'd almost forgotten."

She regarded him with mock concern. "Should I call a doctor?"

"Smart-ass."

"That's me," she agreed sweetly. "And that's why you love me."

"Yes, it is," he allowed, leaning over and planting a gentle kiss on her cheek. "Sarah, I..."

"I love you, too, Jonas." 

"What are you, a mind-reader?" he asked, shaking his head. 

"I'd get better grades with less study if I were," she answered, shaking her head sadly. 

"That why you're always studying? And here I thought you just enjoyed working with cadavers." 

"Well, they're occasionally less pert than some living people I could name."

"Sarah, honey, that just hurts."

"No it doesn't," she laughed, swatting him affectionately.

"Hey!" he protested, grabbing at her wrist. "Cut that out!"

"Make me," she suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"That sounded suspiciously like an offer, Sarah," he said quietly.

"Jonas Quinn, you're _blushing_!"   

"I am not! Well... maybe a little."

"And here I thought you shameless to bring me here." She laughed and shook her head. 

"_Me_? What about you for _coming_?"

"Oh, I _am_ shameless," she admitted unrepentantly, shrugging. "Would you like proof of the fact?"

His flush deepened as he tried to frame an appropriate response.

"Come here," she directed, pulling him into her arms and kissing him tenderly. "I love you, Jonas," she whispered, resting her forehead against his. "Now, tell me what you see when you look at the stars the way you do."

"The future. Our future."

She nodded and rolled onto her back, staring up at them. "Do you see children?"

"Sometimes." 

"Not always?"

"It changes."

"Huh." She nodded. "Jonas," she asked abruptly. "Do you ever wonder if there are people out there?"

"People?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Other than us, you mean? Like in the old stories?"

"Yeah."

"I don't... I guess there must be. We came from somewhere, after all." 

"What do you think they're like?"

"I don't see how they could be that different from us. Some of them are probably very nice."

She nodded faintly, smothering a cough in her hand.

"Not getting sick, are you?" he asked, concerned. 

"Just a spring cold," she assured him dismissively, giving him a reassuring smile. "I want to _meet_ them, Jonas," she said after a few minutes of silence.

"Well, I personally can't think of a better representative for our people." 

"You're just biased."

"Mmm, maybe a little," he agreed, pulling her into a hug. "We have a wedding to plan," he reminded her. "How about this summer?"

"Why so long?" she protested.

"Sarah, I need to finish school before I can start my job. You _know_ that."

"Why? Who says a woman can't support her husband for a few months?" she demanded. "Come on, Jonas. You're better than that."

"This isn't about pride, Sarah. I just... I love you and I want to take care of you. Is that so wrong? Neither of us has any money to spare right now and you're working hard enough just supporting yourself as it is. I don't want to burden you."

"As if _you_ ever could." She sighed and nodded. "I hate it, but you're right. I have enough trouble putting food into my own mouth without filling that bottomless pit of yours that passes for a stomach." 

Jonas laughed and shook his head. "Not for long," he promised. "And once you have your medical degree, we'll have money to spare." He paused for a long moment before adding, "Money to feed several children with bottomless pits just like their father's." 

"Is that something you'd like, Jonas?" she asked slowly. 

"Well, sure. Wouldn't you?"

"I don't... I'm not..." Sarah sighed and shook her head. "I know you spend a lot of time up to your eyeballs in physics texts, so maybe you haven't been reading the news. They're saying it might come to war." 

Jonas frowned and shook his head. "Don't be silly, Sarah. They'd never attack us. It would be suicide." 

Except that part of him insisted that it was not as impossible as it sounded. Sarah was upset enough as it was, though, so he held his peace. It would be suicide, he reminded himself firmly, returning his attention to his fiancée.

"Oh, gee! I almost forgot!" he said, pulling a small box out of his pocket and extending it to her. 

Some proposal, forgetting the promise ring. At least it was a welcomed distraction from the threat of impending war. As if it would ever come to that. All three sides had to rattle their sabers every few decades. It was a good way to let off steam. Actual war, though... Not without a radical shift in the balance of power.

"You got a ring? Oh, Jonas, how did you afford it?" she asked, staring up at him with wide eyes.

"Well, I've been saving and it's not much," he added, opening the box.

"Well, I think it's beautiful. Is that my birthstone?" 

"Yeah," he said, slipping it onto her finger. "I'll get you a better stone when I get my first paycheck."

"Don't you _dare_!" she ordered, shaking her head. "Oh, Jonas, it's perfect." 

"I wish I could give you more."

"You will," she promised, smiling. 

"Looking into the future now, love?" 

"Last time I checked, it was _your_ family that ran in." 

"You know, it's not nice to tease your fiancé..."

"Does that mean I have to wait until you're my husband before I can tease you again?"

"Yes." He nodded smugly.

She opened her mouth to reply, only to have her response lost in another cough. "Oh, dear. I guess I'd better get some cough syrup at the pharmacy tomorrow."

"Can't hurt," Jonas agreed, rising and helping her to her feet. "Come on, I'll walk you home. You should be where it's warm."  

"Jonas, it's just a little cold," she protested, shaking her head. "I'm having a good time with you."

"You should be where it's warm," he repeated more firmly, shaking his head. "Come on, Sarah. You never take care of yourself like you should."

"Obviously, that's what you're for," she retorted as he walked her back to her apartment. 

"Night, Sarah," he murmured at the door, kissing her cheek and turning to leave.

"Jonas," she said, catching his shoulder. "You could stay..."

"S... you want me to... _stay_?" he asked, staring at her with wide eyes. "You mean... stay the night?"

"If you want." She chuckled at the look on his face. "I love that goofy grin you get when you're excited," she announced gravely, taking his hand and steering him inside.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Tuplo and the other rulers of the Land of Light had been more than happy to agree to accommodate the refugees after discussing their plight with Calpurnia and SG1 and had insisted that their visitors stay overnight to enjoy their hospitality. Jonas had been especially pleased with the offer but, then, he had been growing increasingly reticent about returning to his home-world as he spent more time with his former colleagues. 

Sam had quickly busied herself helping with preparations for the reception of the refugees and introducing Calpurnia to their old friends. Her teammates took the opportunity presented by her distraction to put their heads together.

"Well, she seems a lot better," Daniel observed, watching her out of the corner of his eyes. "But it's still only been a day and a half."

"Not very long, really," Jonas agreed, nodding. 

"Indeed," was Teal'c's contribution. "One night free of symptoms does not mean she is entirely well."

Jack nodded faintly. "So, recommendations?" 

"She seemed awfully eager to get back to Delphi before," Jonas noted. 

"And here she is on a planet that doesn't guard it's Stargate," Jack finished for him, nodding faintly. "Okay. So we take turns keeping a discreet eye on her."

"It would be wise to mount a nocturnal watch over her as well," Teal'c suggested. "That is when her symptoms have been most pronounced."

Jack nodded faintly. "We'll take it in shifts. Jonas--"

"Uh, maybe I shouldn't..." he began, trailing off and flushing. 

"Jonas?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, she's known you guys a lot longer. I think it would freak her out less if she woke up and saw one of you sitting there." He shrugged. "You know."

Jack continued to stare at him for a moment but did not comment. "Fine. Then you can baby-sit during the day."

Daniel watched the two warily for a moment before moving to join Sam and the others. "Melocia, it's good to see you again," he greeted the young woman talking to Calpurnia. 

"And you," she answered, smiling at him. "Calpurnia and I have just been discussing the eventual disposition of her people." 

Tuplo smiled proudly, draping an arm around his daughter's shoulder. "Melocia has become a talented administrator. In time, I am sure she will make a fine leader to our people."

The girl colored and bowed her head. "I will do my best." She looked up at Calpurnia. "My father says you were prisoners of one of the false gods?"

"Lord Apollo, yes." She nodded faintly. "There were several thousand of us in the camps." 

"And so few were rescued?" Melocia asked, her expression horrified. "I am so sorry."

"The Tau'ri recovered more than I would have considered possible," Calpurnia answered gravely. "And many more received a quick release from their sufferings during the escape." 

Melocia paled. "That is... horrible."

"It is," Calpurnia agreed quietly. 

Daniel bit his lower lip, regarding the girl uncertainly. Although Doctor Frasier and Doctor Mackenzie had both given her a clean bill of health, she still seemed to be in a mild state of shock. He made a mental note to discuss it with Janet on their return to Earth. Not that he could really blame the girl for being a little emotionally numb after years in a prison work-camp and an escape that had left several hundred of her fellow inmates dead. That was the kind of thing it took time to get over. 

Daniel also noted that she seemed to have attached herself to Sam, never straying far from the other woman. It must have been a great source of comfort for her; the two had really bonded during SG1's short internment on Delphi. He was not surprised when, when supper arrived, Calpurnia settled herself next to Sam. The two quickly became deeply absorbed in quiet conversation. Jonas, sitting between Calpurnia and Jack, seemed to be attending to Jack's conversation with Teal'c, but he did so with a slight frown which deepened over time. 

After the meal was over, he drew Daniel aside. "I don't think she's convinced that Apollo isn't a real god," he murmured. 

Daniel's eyes widened. "You sure? 'Cause it looked to me like she was _very_ eager to escape."

"I'm not saying she wasn't." Jonas shrugged. "Just that I'm not convinced that she still thinks he's a god."

"Hey, so long as she can distinguish between him and the good gods. She's going to be harmless here anyways."

"To us, maybe," Jonas allowed, frowning.

"I'll mention it to Jack."

"Thanks." He looked up as Sam spent a few moments talking to their hosts before slipping from the room. 

"Well, that's my cue," Daniel told him, following.

Jonas sighed and nodded. It was late and he was tired, but not particularly interested in sleep, either, so he started in the other direction, slipping from the great hall into the cool night air.

"You seem much troubled, Jonas Quinn," Teal'c's voice noted a few moments later.

He shrugged, smiling over his shoulder at Teal'c for a moment before turning his attention to the stars. Sarah had been right; there were people up here, millions of them. It was a shame she had never gotten the chance to meet any. Not that all of them were worth meeting, but people like the Tau'ri or those of the Land of Light were very much worth coming to know, both as cultures and as individuals.

"Humans often subscribe to the belief that talking about an undesirable situation may make it more bearable," Teal'c noted.

"Sometimes," he agreed, sighing softly. "But you can't change what's already happened either and it would be pointless to try. Madness lies down that road."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "May I inquire as to the nature of these past regrets?" 

"I... uh..." Jonas shook his head faintly. "I'm sorry, Teal'c, but it's kind of private. Mostly I'm just upset about having to go back."

"No one at the SGC will force your departure."

"I know." Jonas smiled faintly. "But now that you have Daniel back, you don't really need me any more."

"There are numerous other SG teams."

"Wouldn't be the same. Besides, my people kind of need me. I helped make this mess. The least I can do is be responsible enough to clean it up."

"Redemption is an important matter, no matter how unpleasant."

"I used to have a friend... well, she was more than a friend, really," he admitted with a more genuine smile. "She always said that facing the music doesn't mean you have to dance to it."

"I see," Teal'c answered, though clearly he did not.

Jonas grinned. "It means that no matter how much you hate having a responsibility or obligation, that doesn't give you permission not to fulfill it." 

"I see. Your friend is wise."

"Yes, she was," he agreed, nodding faintly. 

"I am sorry," Teal'c said at his use of the word 'was'. 

"She would have _loved_ to meet you, Teal'c. She was always fascinated by the old myths, that there might be people up here. She always wanted to meet them."

"She sounds like an adventurous soul."

Jonas nodded. "She would have been great on an SG team." 

"Then it is regrettable that she was never given a chance to join you among the Tau'ri." 

"Yes, it is," he agreed, sighing softly. "Look, I'm going to get some rest now. Good night, Teal'c."

"Good night, Jonas Quinn." 

***

Sam awoke with a start and had to stifle a scream at the sight of someone moving in the darkness just beyond her range of sight. Firmly reminding herself that she was not in hostile territory, she reached for her Zat.

"Bad dream, Carter?" a familiar voice murmured in the darkness.

"Sir?" she asked as O'Neill moved closer, stopping a few feet from the bed, one hand resting on his own Zat. 

"Bad dream?" he repeated.

"Yeah, but... not a vision. I was dreaming of..." She paused, shaking her head. "Not important, sir. What are you doing in my room at this hour?"

"Just checking on you."

"What, Janet asked you to keep an eye on me?" she asked, startled and more than a little annoyed with her friend. 

"No. We just decided--"

"We?"

"The other members of SG-1 and myself," he clarified. "We've been worried."

She sighed and closed her eyes, frustrated. "Sir, I'm _fine_. Janet's treatments are working. There's nothing wrong with me any more."

"You're still having nightmares," he pointed out reasonable, taking another step towards her. He stopped in his tracks as a shaft of moonlight illuminated the bed and the woman in it. "Nice toga."

Sam snorted softly. They had not come expecting to stay the night, and their guests had provided bedclothes. "Yours, too."

"Yeah, if I'd known you were going to wake up, I would have changed back into my clothes," he muttered, coloring. 

She smiled faintly. "I'm fine, sir," she repeated.

"You're still having nightmares," he countered. "You told Janet you _weren't_."

"I didn't last night. And this was _just_ a nightmare, not a vision," she informed him. "Sir, please..."

"What was it about?" he asked gently, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Come on, Carter. I need to know if you're still having visions. You _know_ that."

She closed her eyes and nodded. "The Alpha site, Anubis' drone. Fighting it on my own... Can I please stop now?" she whispered, her voice breaking. 

Jack winced. He had read her mission reports which, alone, painted a hellish picture of that day. But there was more to the experience than could be explained in a technical report of her attempts to fight the drone. There was the fact that most of the other workers on site, many close friends, had been slaughters. There was the fact that she had not known if her own father had survived. There was the total lack of certainty as to whether or not help would come...

"Baal," he whispered, bowing his head. "With me, it's always Baal."

"Sir?" She blinked, startled by the abrupt shift. If it had been one at all.

"When he captured me, tortured me. I wake up in cold sweats trying to figure out if I'm in my bed or his sarcophagus," he told her quietly. "Maybe once a week. You?"

"Once or twice," she agreed, nodding weakly. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know."

"Neither did I," he pointed out. "Huh, maybe I _should_ let Hammond send the team to one of those communication in the work-place seminars..."

She smiled weakly in spite of herself. Awake and in his company, it was easy enough to forget, if not the dream itself, the stark terror it invoked. Holding a weapon helped, too...

"Okay, get some rest, Carter," he directed. "Janet will skin me alive if you come back looking less than perfect." 

"Perfect's a lot to ask, sir."

"Hey, I've seen you do the _impossible_," he pointed out, shaking his head. "Perfect's not that much of a stretch. Just get some rest so I don't have to order you to," he ordered, rising and pulling his chair closer to her bed.

"Yes, sir." 

She smiled and nodded, reclining against the large, fluffy pillows, sighing softly as she closed her eyes. Definitely one of the more comfortable off-world trips she had been on. Feasting, a warm bed, comfortable clothes, no one shooting at her or drugging her or possessing her... Eyes closed or not, comfortable or not, she could not sleep. Her thoughts were turbulent, and not just from her dreams. An earlier conversation with Calpurnia kept recurring to her.

_"But if it is your destiny, if it truly be in your power to see such things, how can you fight it? **Why?** Why do you fight it?"_

And, later: _"How can you not be curious? How can the ability to see what may come be repulsive to you? Could you not do much good?"_

Her eyes shot open and she stared at the ceiling, abruptly as unwilling to sleep as she was unable.

"Maybe you should take a sleeping pill?" Jack suggested gently. 

She turned her head, staring at him in surprise. She had not realized that he was still there, let alone that he had known she was awake.

"I'm not sure that would help, sir."

"Huh," he said, rising and moving to sit on the edge of the bed. "This is turning into a bad habit, Carter," he noted, wrapping his arms around her. "Now get some rest."

"Sir," she started, tensing slightly. Once was permissible. Twice... that started to be a problem.

"Just rest, Carter," he ordered. "You think I don't know what it's like to have nightmares? To not want to close your eyes because you know they'll start even before you're asleep?" he asked. "Sometimes it helps to know you aren't alone."

She nodded and leaned into him. "Thank you, sir."

He sighed softly and nodded. "Night, Carter."

She slept quickly after that, to Jack's relief, snuggling into his chest and mumbling contentedly. He knew what it was like, memories become nightmares, disturbing your sleep, making you anxious and irritable during the day. There were times when he could not help but wonder if that was _really_ why his wife had left him, because of the dreams, the screaming in the night, the wild struggles that had accompanied dreams of fighting to save Charlie. 

Eventually, those dreams had been replaced, by dreams of Abydos, Ra, a hundred other Gua'old. Friends and team-mates, men and women he had tried to save but could not. Probably, Carter suffered from many of those same dreams, remembering men and women she had been unable to save, whole worlds that they had not been able to make a difference for. 

For him, at least, the near-misses were almost as bad. Like being stuck in the Antarctic, nearly losing Carter due to her stubborn refusal to flee, to try to save herself when he had been to injured to help either:

_He ordered me to leave him, but I ultimately decided to stay. You don't leave anyone behind, no matter what the odds. _

When they had been trying to destroy Apophis' mother-ship and he and Carter had been caught on opposite sides of that defense-shield. He had read her report, the delicacy with which she had justified his suicidal decision to stay. 

_The Colonel refused to leave me then. He's always preached to all of us that we never leave anyone behind._

That was the perennial excuse, for both of them. In the absence of a Zar-tac detector and the bitch on the other side of it, it was even enough. If Hammond saw more of a pattern in their reports than 'never leave anyone behind', he was kind enough to ignore it. Jack did his best to ignore it himself, as he was sure Sam did. 

At least, he assumed that was why she had started dating. If that was what it could be called. Yes, she occasionally walked into briefings with that 'I got lucky last night' smirk on her face, but that did not change the fact that her boyfriend lived in Denver better than 95% of the time. Nor did it change the fact that Sam never seemed particularly upset by his frequent absences. It was nice to have him around, obviously, but his absences never distressed her, either. As far as he could tell, that did not really make it a relationship. In a relationship, you cared when your other was gone. Hell, most of the time, he regretted any separation of more than a few days from Sam. Not that he could ever comfortably admit it, at least not as things were now, but that did not change his feelings, either...

***

Sam yawned and stretched, careful not to wake the man sitting up next to her. He had spent hours sitting up next to her before finally falling asleep himself, she suspected, and she did not want to disturb him. Restless, she carefully disengaged herself from his arms and rose, dressing quickly and leaving the compound for a walk.

She was a little surprised to see a lone figure facing the rising sun, more surprised when she recognized her. 

"Calpurnia?"

"Major," the girl greeted her, turning. "It's been so long since I have seen a sunrise," she explained, smiling.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" 

"Most lovely," Calpurnia agreed. "Will you walk with me, friend? There is a rise there where we may see the sunrise to greater advantage if you care to."

"I'd like that," Sam agreed, following her.

"Have you considered what we spoke of last night?" Calpurnia asked as they walked.

"Yes, but..." Sam shook her head. "I don't want this 'gift', Calpurnia. It's enough to drive you mad."

"Perhaps, but it is also the greatest honor Lord Apollo may bestow," Calpurnia noted. "I remember when the current Cybil was chosen from among the priestesses. She was most frightened, but also greatly pleased and _most_ honored." 

"Yeah, well, I haven't lived with a life-time of brainwashing, either."

"We have always been taught not to fight our destiny."

"Yeah, but there's a difference between destiny and between what some dictator with delusions of godhood _thinks_ you should do."

"Yes, I suppose that must be the case. I certainly never saw myself here now. Once, I would have been happy to spend a life serving in Lord Apollo's household. Now, I understand that there is so much more that I am capable of."

"That's the spirit," Sam told her.

"Yet, still, you would resist your own opportunity to be more. Why?"

"I... I don't... I just don't like what I see."

"But if you can know the future, is it not in your power to change it? To defy the Fates _and_ the gods?"

"Maybe," Sam agreed quietly. "I'm just not sure that it's necessarily. There are more ways to change a situation than facing it head-on."

"Then you chose flight?" Calpurnia asked. "A life of fear? Wondering when they will come for you?"

Sam opened her mouth to answer, then spun to face Calpurnia. "How did you know..." she began.

"My Lord knows all," Calpurnia answered simply, producing a Zat from her robes and firing it at Sam, who dropped immediately. "And he shares with the faithful what he must." Pulling a round communication's device from her robes, she spoke into it. "My Lady, I have her at this location. Pray, bring your Jaffa to retrieve her."

There was a long pause, then a beautiful face appeared and answered in a low voice, "You have done well, our dearest Calpurnia. Our Lord will be well-pleased with your efforts. My Jaffa come. Would you do more for your Lord and his Queen?"

"All is in your service, Lady Artemis. Anything you would have of me."

"Good girl. Your place as one of my handmaidens is assured. With only a little more work, you may become _First_ among them. Does this appeal to you?"

"Greatly, my Lady."

"Very well. When the Jaffa come to retrieve our future host, you must resist, struggle to defend her."

"I do not understand..."

"In appearance only. When the Tau'ri find you, you must tell them of your struggles to protect your savior, the Major. And then you must tell them such of the truth as you must to insure their return to Delphi."

"As my Lady commands." 

"Hide away your communications device and weapons now, child. Retrieve them later, when you may safely return to us. When the Tau'ri come, your place will be unsured."

"I understand," Calpurnia assured her, quickly hiding away both the Zat and the communication device in a nearby animal-burrow. 

When the Jaffa arrived, she did as her Lady commanded, screaming roundly and allowing one to strike her face and body repeatedly before Zatting her. She slid to the ground, dazed and half-conscious as the Jaffa lifted Major Samantha Carter into a gurney they had brought and quickly bore her back towards the Stargate. 

  



	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **Sorry again for the delay (damn RL), and for the cliffhanger I am again about to leave you with. No fear, though. The boys will save the day before anything too much worse can happen to Sam.

**Chapter 10**

Jonas woke in a cold sweat, panting and looking frantically around the room. Something was very wrong. 

_"They have her!" Jack shouted, punching a wall._

"They have her," Jonas repeated in a whisper, jumping to his feet and making a bee-line towards Sam's room. He was not particularly surprised to see the Colonel asleep in Sam's bed, but finding him _alone_ there… "Sir!" he hissed, shaking the man awake. "Sir, where is she?" he demanded. 

"I…" Jack yawned and shook his head, trying to clear it. It took him a moment to orient himself to where he was and what was missing. "_Sam_," he breathed, looking around frantically. "No. No, you didn't!" he protested, jumping to his feet. "She couldn't have," he told Jonas firmly, more to convince himself that Sam would not willingly have returned to Delphi. "She's probably just using the latrine..." But the words rang false even as he spoke them. 

"It might not be too late," Jonas said. "We'll get the others, search the area…"

Jack nodded and smacked his shoulder before turning and leaving the room at a run. Jonas followed just as quickly and they had soon roused the entire palace to search for her. Guards were dispatched to the Gate to prevent her from leaving if she had not already and others sent to search the Land of Darkness and the surrounding countryside.

"This is hopeless!" Daniel groaned as he and Jack walked across a field, calling for Sam as they searched. "She could have gone any time after you got there. She could have been gone for hours before you woke up."

Jack rounded on him. "You think that hasn't occurred to me?" he shouted. "Damn it, Daniel! I _know_ this is my fault. I don't need a reminder!"

"No, Jack, I didn't mean--"

"Carter!" Jack shouted, ignoring him. He started walking again, cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting again. "_Carter!_"

Daniel sighed and followed, occasionally shouting Sam's name. 

"Sir, you there?" Jonas' voice came over the walkie-talkie. 

They had stopped long enough to grab those, but had not wasted time to change into their uniforms. Jack was suddenly struck very forcefully by how ridiculous he must have looked, walking through a wheat-field with a P-90 slung over his shoulder, wearing a toga that had a walkie-talkie and a Zat clipped to it. The insanity of _that_ actually relieved some of the pressure he was feeling. Almost.

"Go ahead, Jonas," he sighed 

"Sir, they just finished searching the palace. Calpurnia's missing, too."

"Now that can not be a coincidence," Daniel said quietly. 

"_Really_?" Jack asked sarcastically, shaking his head. "Damn, I knew I should have confronted her with what Jonas said last night..."

"Jack, you have got to stop blaming yourself and focus on…" He trailed, off, frowning into the distance for a moment before breaking into a run. 

It took Jack a moment to make out what Daniel had seen but, when he did, he broke into a run as well, ignoring the searing pain in his knee that the action always caused. A toga-clad form lay on the ground. A _female_ toga-clad form. 

"God, don't be..." he began, only to stop as he realized that the woman had long hair. Calpurnia, it had to be. Daniel was kneeling over her when he reached them. 

"She's been beaten pretty badly," he announced, feeling for a pulse. "But she's still alive. Looks like she took a Zat-blast, too."

Jack blinked, trying to piece together the situation. If Calpurnia really had betrayed Sam, who had beaten Calpurnia? But if she had not, how had Apollo known where to find them?

Calpurnia moaned and rolled over, her eye-lids fluttering. "Major?" she whispered, looking around, still dazed by the effects of the Zat. "Did they... I tried to fight so she could escape, but she would not flee!" she told Jack in a desperate tone. 

"Where is she?" he asked.

"I... by now they must have taken her through the Ring of the Gods."

"They?"

"Lord Apollo's Jaffa."

"What happened?" Daniel asked. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Who gives a damn!" Jack snapped. "They have her. We are going back to Earth and we are getting Hammond to give us a few SG teams and we are _getting her back! _You," he added, snapping his fingers at Calpurnia, whose innocence he still was not entirely convinced of. "Come on."

  
Calpurnia nodded meekly and rose, but her knees buckled and only Daniel's quick reflexes kept her from hitting the ground.

"Take it easy," he advised, lifting her into his arms. "Let's go."

Jack nodded and started back towards the Gate, activating his walkie-talkie as he went. "Jonas, Teal'c, Apollo has Sam. Get to the Gate ASAP." 

"Understood,"  Teal'c replied. 

"On my way."

"Don't wait for us. Go through, tell the General, start getting the others ready to move out."  

***

"Nice Toga, Jonas. You, too, Teal'c," Janet greeted them in the Gate-room, grinning faintly at how ridiculous they looked. The combined effect of the togas, Zats, walkie-talkies, and automatic weapons was worse than Jack had guessed. Her smile faded almost immediately as the wormhole deactivated. "Where are the others?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Daniel and the Colonel are on their way," Jonas answered quietly, not meeting her eye. "It's Sam. She..."

"Major Carter is once again Apollo's captive," Teal'c supplied when Jonas faltered. 

"God," Janet whispered.

"She and Calpurnia were attacked by several Jaffa. Calpurnia will require your assistance," Teal'c continued. 

"Are... are the others okay?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"They're fine," Jonas assured her quickly, squeezing her shoulder. "Calpurnia and Sam were out alone, walking."

"I can't believe she'd go out alone and unarmed!" Janet half-shouted. She was terrified for Sam's sake and anger made that easier to forget.

"What happened?" Hammond demanded, entering the Gate-room. "Where the hell are the others and why in God's name are you _dressed_ like that?"

As Teal'c quietly relayed everything that had happened to the General, Jonas drew Janet a few feet away.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently. 

"I... Fine, I'm fine," she assured him in a shaky voice.

"We'll get her back," he promised. 

"That a guess?" she whispered.

"Yes," he admitted, his expression apologetic. "But that doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of people on this base who care about her very much and would do anything to help her."

Janet opened her mouth to respond, but trailed off as claxons filled the room, announcing another incoming wormhole. 

"Receiving IDC. It's SG-1," Sergeant Davis announced.

"Open the Iris," Hammond ordered. 

Janet immediately rushed forward as Daniel carried Calpurnia forward. Jack made a bee-line for Hammond. 

"Calpurnia, can you hear me?" Janet asked, pulling out her pen-light and shining it in the girl's eyes. 

Calpurnia nodded weakly, wincing as she did so. 

"Yeah, looks like a concussion," Janet said, gently probing the girl's abdomen. "Does that hurt?"

"A little."

"Well, I don't _think_ there's any internal bleeding, but I'd like to get some scans just to be safe. It won't be that different from the tests I gave you when--"

"_They have her!" _Jack shouted, slamming his fist into the wall.

Janet looked up at the shout, wincing as his fist connected with the wall. 

"Colonel, restrain yourself!" Hammond ordered sharply. 

"You have got to give me--"

"Give you _who_?" Hammond demanded. "Do you have any idea how few men I have to spare right now? Have you not been looking around these past few days? We have over _twenty-five_ members of various teams not fit for active duty, Colonel."

"So give me the rest!" Jack shouted. "This is Carter we're talking about here! They are going to make her a host!"

"My office, Colonel!" Hammond ordered, pointing. "Doctor, are the girl's injuries severe enough to prevent her from being debriefed?"

"Sir," Jack began. 

"My office _now_, Colonel!" he ordered sharply.

Jack glared at him for a moment before stalking off.

"Doctor?" Hammond prompted. 

"I'd like to get those scans run first. She took a pretty heavy blow to the head. I want to rule out the possibility of hematoma." 

"Fair enough." He nodded. "Teal'c, once she's been cleared by Doctor Frasier, I'd like you to debrief her." 

Teal'c nodded acceptance of the order.

"The rest of you, dismissed. Get some rest if you can."

"Sir--" Daniel and Jonas started together.

He held up his hand to forestall them. "I know, gentlemen. Believe me, I do. Dismissed." Sighing deeply, he turned and walked to his office.

"General," Jack began the minute he entered.

"I know, Jack," Hammond sighed, closing the door and dropping into his seat. "I care about her, too." Closing his eyes, he added, "I know this is hard on you, but right now, we have a very serious deficit in our number of operational teams. There is no way the president would authorize--"

"Then we go without authorization. Wouldn't be the first time," he pointed out. 

"Jack."

"Damn it, George, this is _Carter!_" he snapped. "She's invaluable to my team and to this entire program! Without her, there wouldn't _be_ a Stargate program! The least we can do is use the damned thing to save her!"

Hammond shook his head. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to me having to say this, Jack, but I think we both know that you are letting your emotions get the better of you. Now as long as the emotions in question didn't cloud your ability to perform your job, I've been perfectly willing to pretend they don't exist. Please don't make me have to change that policy." 

Jack's jaw dropped. "This is not about--"

"How many nights have you spent in her room in the past week?" Hammond interrupted quietly. 

"Oh, so now you're accusing me of _sleeping_ with her? You think I'd do anything to endanger her position here?" Jack demanded. 

"I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm telling you that if you can find a _reasonable _way to recover the Major, I will do everything in my power to make it happen."

Jack exhaled deeply, nodding. "Thank you, sir."

"Maybe we can recruit a few Jaffa from the Alpha site." He sighed again as one more painful fact made its way into his awareness. "And someone is going to have to tell Jacob."

"I'll do it, sir. I was her CO."

"You still are, Jack." 

"I'm not sleeping with her, George."

"I know." He nodded faintly. "You care about her too much." 

Jack closed his eyes and nodded, biting back tears. How insane was that? Loving a woman too much to sleep with her. Only in the military...

"Go to the infirmary," Hammond directed. "Get a valium."

"Yes, sir. If I could just have a roster of all available personnel--"

"You need to have a clear head for this, Jack. Take some time to compose yourself first."

"I _can't_!" he snapped. "The longer I sit on my ass doing nothing the more worked up I am going to get and you know it, George! The same would be true if _any_ member of my team were in this situation and you know _that_, too!"

Hammond regarded him thoughtfully for a long moment before reaching into a desk drawer and producing a folder. "Remember to get that valium," he told Jack as he handed it over.

"Thank you, sir."

***

Hammond did not comment on the damp spots on the pages as Jack handed them back, though he did wonder whether they were tears of desperation or if Jack was already in mourning. 

  
"We can make this happen," Jack told him. "A small team, special ops trained. We have enough former black-ops people to do it." He handed him a sheet of paper. 

"Daniel and Jonas are not going to be happy about being excluded," Hammond pointed out, handing the sheet back to him.

"Does that mean I have a go?"

"I believe it does. We'll have the briefing as soon as you get back from the Alpha site."

"Jacob," Jack whispered. In struggling to come up with a viable plan on short notice, he had forgotten.

"He's been my friend for a lot of years. I can be the one to tell him if you want."

Jack shook his head. "I'm her CO. It should come out of my mouth."

Hammond nodded and watched Jack turn to go, sighing and shaking his head. 

He was not surprised when, even before the briefing, Daniel and Jonas were in his office complaining about their exclusion, sometimes speaking over each other, sometimes combining their voices. I've been a member of this team for six years. My visions can be invaluable on something like this. After all, Sam is our friend, too, damn it.

Hammond sighed, wondering which was worse: Jack with his ranting, Daniel with his logical points, or Jonas with his hurt puppy-dog expression. Or maybe it was how hard it was to keep a secret at the SGC. No, he decided finally, the worst part was Samantha Carter's absence.

"Take a look at this roster, gentlemen," he advised, sliding it across the desk. "Then tell me what the men on it all have in common." 

"None of them are like brothers to Sam?" Daniel challenged. "None of them have been to Delphi before?" 

"And none of them can see the future," Jonas added mildly. "Sir..."

"No." Hammond shook his head. "The matter is closed. You are not returning to Delphi. Now, you may attend the pre-mission briefing, but only if you promise to behave yourselves. Dismissed."

Jonas cursed, ignoring the shocked expressions the others gave him, and stalked out of the office, muttering to himself and searching for Janet. He did not have to search much farther than the infirmary, of course. 

"How are you holding up?" Janet asked gently. 

"I'll be better once we have Sam back in one piece." He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "I hate them, Janet."

"We all do, Jonas. Especially right now. Look at everything they've done to us in the past few weeks."

"Makes it that much more frustrating that I can't go," Jonas grumbled, shaking his head in disgust. "I can see the _future_! How can the General not think I could be an asset?"

"The General has his reasons."

"Don't you give me that, too." He shook his head. "Did Teal'c get anything out of Calpurnia?"

"Yes, but you aren't going to like it. Artemis' current host is infertile, Jonas. Apollo wants to change that."

"My God," Jonas whispered, aghast. So Apollo had started to get the same ideas as Apophis about creating a Harsesis child… 

"I know." Janet nodded. 

He sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping. "Why didn't I see this coming?" 

  
"You can't see everything, Jonas. You know that. There are so _many_ possibilities and not even you can be sure of them all." She shook her head, squeezing his shoulder. "Maybe you should get some rest?"

"People keep telling me that lately," he answered, shaking his head. "I fell asleep last night and look what happened."

"So you're never going to sleep again?"

"Sounds like a plan," came the whispered response. 

"Don't do this to yourself, Jonas, please. This isn't your fault. It's the fault of a Gua'old you've never even encountered before. Place blame where it's due."

Jonas nodded weakly. "Thank you, Janet. You always were better than half the shrinks on this base."

***

Sam awoke on a hard, flat surface. That alone was not unusual given the number of times she slept on the ground in a given month, but this surface was cold metal. She opened her eyes reluctantly, half-expecting and half-praying to see herself in the infirmary. Her prayer was not answered, making her wonder as she looked around the fabric-draped room whether there was a single god out there who was not simply some alien imposter. She tried to sit up, only to find herself restrained. Shaking her head, she started to struggle. 

"Hold her head still," Cybil ordered, gesturing absently to two temple maidens as she placed the Gua'old on Sam's chest.

"She's fighting it," one of the maidens said, startled.

"_Let_ her," the other answered. "It won't help."

"Why do you fight this honor?" the first asked in obvious confusion. 

"No!" Sam whispered in frantic protest as the parasite made its way quickly from her chest to her throat, then slid behind it. "**_No!_**" she screamed as the searing pain of its attempt to burrow into the back of her neck made itself felt. "_No, no, **no!**_" she protested, bucking against her restraints. "Get out! Get out!" she screamed, only this time the words refused to come and she was reduced to screaming them in her head. 

From the back of her mind, she watched Cybil release the restraints and help her to her feet, then kneel. "My Lady. Your Lord awaits."

"This body pleases us, Cybil," Artemis informed her. "Calpurnia must be well-rewarded for her service in bringing it to us." 

Sam felt her heart sink at those words and, had it been possible, she knew she would have been weeping.

"Of course, my Lady." 

_Get out of my head, you damned parasite!_  she ordered mentally. The mental order was followed by the most extreme pain Sam had felt in her entire life, worse than she would have imagined possible. And it did not last for a moment or two, either. It endured long after Artemis followed Cybil from the temple to the palace and sat down to join her brother for an early supper. 

It was clear to Sam that, for his part, Apollo was well-pleased with his Queen's new body. The looks he kept giving her would have made her shiver if that response had been in her hands. 

_Have you ever been on the receiving end of a God's favors?_ Artemis inquired lightly.

_Bitch! Get out of my head!_ Sam snapped back, only to find herself once more in excruciating pain. 

_You will find the experience... moving. I've always enjoyed it, and I know Cybil did as well._

  
Sam was startled by that revelation.

Artemis was amused and Sam could tell. _A high priestess must serve her lord and master in **many** capacities. How did you think her hair ended up white? She resisted at first and so had to be punished, but she came to savor the experience as much as I always do. Our royal brother has had thousands of years to refine his technique,_ Artemis assured her.

Sam could not fight her fear or revulsion any longer. This time her mental screams had nothing to do with pain or protest. Artemis laughed silently at her until Cybil entered the dinging hall. 

"My Lady's injection."

"Injection?" Apollo asked. 

"The Tau'ri took steps to undo our previous work on the host. She can no longer see the future." 

Apollo scowled and made a preemptory gesture to Cybil, who pulled the injector from her robes and emptied its contents into Sam's carotid artery. His expression faintly disgusted, he rose. 

"Come to me when this flaw has corrected itself," he ordered Artemis. 

"As my Lord wishes," Artemis answered, bowing her head as he swept from the room. 

Mentally, Sam heaved a sigh of relief. She had been spared what had to be the most unwanted attentions she could even _imagine_ being on the receiving end of. For now, at least.

_You can not **begin** to imagine the true definition of the words 'unwanted attentions,_ Artemis taunted her. _The sarcophagus heals many injuries. I may have to relinquish control of this body long enough for my Lord to show you. _


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** And once again I must apologize for delaying the posting of this chapter for so long. RL has been nothing but a string of minor disasters just lately, and then crunch week and finals snuck up on me, then there was a serious illness in the family... Then ff.net was less than cooperative due to the upgrades, though I have to say I like the changes in spite of its habit of removing spacers and breaks.

At any event, here's the final chapter (and much longer than the others by way of compensation). Sorry again. Hope it was worth the wait.

**Chapter 11**

Jack examined each of the assembled soldiers grimly and for far longer than he normally would have before moving out. It was not so much that he lacked faith in them, they were some of the best officers on the planet and he knew it, it was just that he doubted he would ever be able to forgive himself if they proved less than up to the impossible task they had been set. The look on Jacob's face at the news that Sam had been captured had been heart-rending. Jack was not sure if he could handle having to tell the man that he had been unable to recover her.

In the observation room above, Jonas and Daniel were staring grimly down at the strike-team. As Hammond had predicted, the two men had been less than happy to be excluded. Jack understood that, and he could relate. If it had been grounded for this particular mission, he would have been furious. But that did not change facts, either. Neither of them had any special forces training, _none_. That stood to make them both very serious liabilities on a mission where nothing could afford to go wrong. Besides, the safest way to do this would be with a very small group, surgically.

_And if she's got a snake in her head when we find her?_ a voice in the back of his head nagged. _Will we be able to handle **that**_ _surgically, too?_

Shivering and closing his eyes, he gave a brief shake of his head before looking up at the small group again. "You all know what our objective here today is," he informed them. "You all know Carter and you all know how important she is to the SGC. Hell, she's saved most of your asses more than once. She's saved mine, too. Let's bring her back alive."

"Sir?"

"Go ahead, Captain."

"Sir, what if she's already been infested?"

"Our objective is to bring her back _alive_. The Tokra have already offered to help out with any.... guests she brings along for the ride. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they chimed in unison.

"Okay. You have your assignments. Move out!" he directed, heading through the wormhole.

Delphi was as beautiful and serene-looking as he remembered it. It also still had no Jaffa guarding the Gate. Typical Gua'old arrogance. Not that he was complaining...

"You, you, and you secure the Gate. The rest of you, with me."

Marching across the farm-dotted countryside, Jack was struck by how similar it really did look to the Land of Light, exactly as Jonas had said. Except for the fact that those mountains in the distance were being mined by thousands of slave-laborers. The farms, too, for that matter. Every human and Jaffa on the planet was slave to a despot so trivial that not even the System Lords had bothered to take note of his existence.

Well, they _would_ once they found out what he had planned, Jack would see to that. There was, after all, a lot to be said for petty revenge.

They quickly approached the palace complex and split up, three to search the prisons, two to search the temple. Which left Jack and Teal'c to check out the palace. The groups were small on purpose. They would not stand a chance in a fire-fight, but they were small enough to avoid the kind of notice that _led_ to them, too. They could not afford any fire-fights, now less than ever, and all had standing orders to fall back through the Gate immediately if things went south. They were taking a big enough risk without further compounding the problems at the SGC by getting everyone in the party killed as well.

He stopped in his tracks as he realized that he had actually started to attach the phrase 'acceptable risk' to his own death or the death of one of the men with him. Hammond had been right, his emotions were getting the best of him or he would not even _be_ here right now, leading almost half the remaining combat-ready members of the SGC into what could easily be a trap.

"O'Neill?" Teal'c asked quietly.

He shook his head faintly and kept walking, ignoring his self-doubt. It was too damned late for second thoughts, justified or not. The only way they were getting out of this alive was with Artemis as a hostage.

He winced at the thought, Artemis, not Sam, but he knew it was true, too. There was no reason for Apollo to waste time on the implantation. The life of the previous host would not have meant a thing to him _or_ Artemis and the longer Sam remained an uninfested captive, the greater the likelihood of a rescue attempt. It might not even have _occurred_ to Apollo that they would try to recover her once she was a host. He would know now that he had access to Sam's memories, of course, but he could not have before.

Apollo had access to Sam's memories... another disturbing thought. Artemis might already have revealed all manner of sensitive information to him. What he found bothering him more than that, though, was the thought of some _snake_ having every last one of Sam's memories of _him_. Not that there was anything sensitive in those, at least not in terms of military intelligence, but it bothered him all the same. Private moments spent with a friend were meant to be private, pure and simple.

He had no desire for Artemis to know how many times he had invited Sam to go fishing with him, or teased her about her boyfriend, or just teased her on general principle. He did not want Artemis to know how many times over the past two weeks he had held her in his arms until she slept. He certainly did not want Artemis to know about how they had been sitting in the commissary the other day, joking over dessert, and Sam had gotten some whipped cream on her cheek without noticing, how he had wiped it off without thinking. He _especially _did not want Artemis to know that, once, when Sam had started making advances towards him while under the influence of an alien illness, his first words had not been 'stop it', but 'not like this'. Or what he had revealed in front of her during Zat'arc testing...

He was jealous of all those memories, _had_ to be. He certainly could not be jealous of the woman herself, not when the only thing about her he _could_ lay claim to were those memories. Shaking his head in disgust, he gestured to Teal'c to take the right hallway while he took the left.

Five minutes later, hugging a shadow and watching 'Sam' sweep by with an honor guard of Jaffa and various servants, he almost wished that he had sent Teal'c that way instead. Seeing her like that, the arrogance in her normally-sweet expression...

"Tell my Lord that I will soon be ready for him," Artemis directed Cybil.

"So soon, my Lady?"

"Yes. The virus was not completely purged from the host's system. Recovery of the Sight comes more rapidly as a result."

"Our Lord will be pleased."

"Mmm," Artemis agreed. "The child may well be conceived this night."

"Carter!" Jack called, stepping into clear sight.

The thought of her actually _sleeping_ with that snake-infested bastard was just too much. Her feelings towards the Gua'old were almost as strong as his own. It was not a memory he wanted her to have to spend the rest of her life with. Hell, that was not a memory he would have wished on _Kinsey_. He had known the relationship existed from everything Daniel had told him, but he had not stopped once to consider that anything would actually come of it where Sam was concerned.

Artemis turned to face him, her expression indolent. "O'Neill. We knew you would come. She held out so much hope that we knew it could not have been otherwise." Smiling faintly, she turned away again, murmuring, "Jaffa, _kree_," in a voice that was far too much like Sam's. "Bring him before my Lord, a gift from his Queen. Then kill him."

As she walked off with her retinue of servants, a half-dozen Jaffa leveled their staff-weapons at him. Jack stared after her in shock, calling her name in spite of the fact that he knew it was useless, only peripherally aware of the warriors as they roughly propelled him towards the throne-room. Jack glared loathingly at Apollo as the Jaffa forced him to his knees on the marble floor.

"Give her back, you son of a bitch or, so help me--"

"You are in no position to make demands," Apollo interrupted, his voice bored. "My Queen assured me that you would return," he added, smirking. "She much doubted it would be alone."

He made an idle gesture with one hand and, to Jack's horror, several Jaffa herded the rest of the team into the room, everyone but Teal'c. Of all people, Teal'c would be the one to know how to avoid a Jaffa patrol.

"Yup, that's all of them," Jack said in a bored voice of his own, hoping that none of the others had let on about Teal'c's absence. "Or, at least, the whole _first_ wave."

"You lie," Apollo answered, rising and stepping down from the dais his couch was on. He casually backhanded Jack, sending him to the floor. "There are not enough men and women _left_ at your Stargate Command to form another team. Their deaths at the hands of Anubis are proof of the folly of opposing a god. Now, you must learn this lesson yourself. Take them to the camps," he ordered his Jaffa, returning to his couch.

"My Lord," one of them began.

"**_Kree!_**" Apollo snapped. "I gave you an _order_!"

"Our Lady wished his death..."

"Did she?" he asked, amused. "The host must have cared for you _very_ greatly indeed," he told Jack. "Call an assembly," he ordered the Jaffa. "His execution will be a public one. Our Queen and I will preside jointly."

"As you command," the Jaffa answered, saluting before gesturing to the others to lead the prisoners from the throne-room.

.

Artemis was issuing orders to her retainers to make her ready for her Lord's pleasure when Cybil looked up sharply.

"Milady, danger approaches..."

"Danger?" the Gua'old repeated.

The oracle was on the ground, courtesy of twin Zat-blasts, before she could reply. Artemis looked up, smiling faintly as a familiar face made itself seen. Not, perhaps familiar to herself, but _more_ than familiar to the host. Her retainers instantly formed twin lines between herself and the Jaffa.

"The sho'_va_, Teal'c," she greeted him casually. "We knew _you_ would come as well. Let me guess. You are here to request that I relinquish your friend's body..." she said in mocking parody of his own formalized tone and manner.

"It was _not_ to be a request."

Teal'c eyed Artemis contemptuously over the heads of the handmaidens. It was typical of the Gua'old to employ human shields in such a manner. And each and every one of the young women were probably firmly convinced that it would be a great honor to die protecting Artemis. On Delphi, as on many Gua'old worlds, freedom was an unknown virtue. Only loyalty mattered.

"Leave us," Artemis snapped to the girls, her lips curling into an arrogant smile at Teal'c's startled expression. It was matched by the horrified expressions of her retainers.

"But, Milady!" one of them protested.

"Acte, _kree_!" Artemis snapped, making a dismissive gesture. "The sho'_va_ and I have much to discuss. Take Cybil and prepare her body. Inform her successor to ready herself for the scrutiny of her gods. Go."

The handmaidens left reluctantly, four of them bearing Cybil reverently from the curtain-draped bedchamber. Artemis smiled up at Teal'c.

"So, the sho'_va_ comes to plead for the life of his friend?" she purred, shaking her head.

She could feel Sam mentally protesting the taunting and chastened her with a searing dose of pain. The human female, it was obvious, viewed Teal'c as hero, not traitor, an honorable warrior to be respected. It did not take Artemis long to isolate easily a dozen incidences in which Teal'c had saved Sam's life, that of her entire team, even. Other intimacies were more cherished by the human, crying in the arms of the Jaffa over the death of Daniel Jackson among those moments. Alien or not, he was more than friend to Samantha Carter. Teal'c was _brother_ to her. For that reason alone, Artemis was determined to make him suffer, exactly as she was determined to make Jack O'Neill, _far _more than CO to the woman, die. The host continued to resist, had to learn, even if it be the hard way.

_Let him go! He never hurt you!_

_Ah, but he **would**, yes? For treason against his god Apophis alone, he should be long-dead. _

_Bitch!_

Artemis met this last with another dose of pain, smiling to herself at Sam's mental screams.

"You will relinquish the body of Major Carter," Teal'c ordered with what Artemis knew from Sam's own memories was his typical uncompromisingness.

"But I find this body most suitable." She smiled faintly. "As does our God, Apollo."

"Apollo is no god."

Artemis sighed, bored. Taunting the Jaffa was both too easy and overly tiresome: repetitive, even. As the host's mental protests were becoming. The punishments she was capable of bringing to bear seemed only to strengthen the resolve of the human female, excruciatingly painful or not. It hardly mattered, of course. This human was in the prime of her life, healthy, and most importantly _fertile_. Nor did it hurt that her loss was a great blow to the Tau'ri who had been a thorn in the side of all Gua'old for far too long. Taking Samantha Carter as a host, killing her friends, these were a good start to dealing the next, more crippling blow.

And when she herself was with child by her Lord, she fully intended to have a nice, long discussion with her host, extracting such information as would allow them to deal the killing rather than crippling blow.

_I won't tell you anything!_

_You have little choice in the matter, human._

_Bitch!_ Sam repeated.

Sighing to herself, Artemis returned her attention to the lone Jaffa before her. Remembering her earlier threat, the repugnance that the host had shown towards the idea, she decided that her Lord was, perhaps, more suited to deal with the woman's persistent defiance. A night with him was all it took to cow most humans.

_No! Please!_

_Then **cooperate**, Major,_ Artemis suggested lightly. _Perhaps I will even let your other friends live._

_Go to hell!_

_Witness the price of defiance._

Shaking her head, Artemis lifted her ribbon device and released a burst of energy at the Jaffa, knocking him across the room and to the floor.

**_No!_**

Daniel rushed into the temple, stopping in his tracks at the sight of Teal'c, face-down on the ground, a toga-clad Sam sneering down at him. She was dressed much as he had been earlier, toga augmented with a Zat and her pistol.

"My God, Sam, what happened here?" he gasped.

Artemis stepped over Teal'c, sneering as she approached Daniel. "Bow to your god. On your knees."

**_No_**_! Get **out**!_

_Silence. You bring this on them yourself by your continued resistance..._

"Sam, don't do this. I know you're in there."

"Nothing of the host remains, insolent boy," she answered, raising her ribbon device.

_Stop it!_ Sam pled as Daniel went to his knees. _Don't. You can't. He's my **friend**_**, **_damn it!_

Artemis ignored these pained protests. The host was stronger than any she had yet taken. "On your knees," she ordered Daniel, firing a blast of energy from the ribbon device.

"Sam!" Daniel gasped. "Don't!"

Artemis scowled at his continued attempts to reason at the host, as if that would help. "You are not worthy even to serve. Except, perhaps, as an example." Sneering, she raised the ribbon device again, eliciting a prolonged howl from Daniel and an even more pained response from Sam.

She was suddenly aware of the sensation of cold metal against the side of her head. Her smile faded and she made a mental note to kill such of the temple guards as remained alive. She did not, however, cease her torment of the archaeologist. It was simply too enjoyable listening to the host's cries of protest.

"O'Neill," she greeted the man holding a gun to her head. "I thought my Jaffa had killed you..."

She scowled at the host's triumphant response to the situation. She did not think herself saved, except of a lifetime as a host, but it did not stop her from gloating at Artemis' expense, either. She _had_, after all, known he would come to free her. One way or the other...

"You have Sam's memories," Jack replied grimly. "You should know I'm a hard man to kill." He frowned at Daniel's pained cries. "You should also know that I _will_ kill you if you don't let Daniel go."

Artemis diverted her attention from the younger man to the older. "I _do_ have the host's memories," she agreed, turning towards Jack and slowly drawing her side-arm.

**_No!_**_ No, not him, too... You can't!_

**_Watch _**_me..._

Jack looked down, startled to feel the barrel of a gun suddenly pressed against his stomach.

"And so I know that you will kill me anyway. We die together, our love."

Jack's eyes widened, but he dismissed those words immediately as a Gua'old ploy. "Sam," he breathed, shaking his head. "Come on."

_Sir! Sir, please!_

_He can **not **__hear you..._

"Carter, damn it!" Jack snapped, shaking his head but never lowering his own gun. "_Fight!_"

"Nothing of the host remains _to_ fight me," Artemis sneered, shaking her head. Her malicious smile widening, she leaned forward and kissed Jack, her own weapon never wavering. Perhaps she would take a page from Baal's book and use the sarcophagus on him, torturing him to death repeatedly...

"**_No!_**"

Jack's eyes widened. "That's the spirit, Carter. Fight it!"

"She can not prevail over me. Nothing of the host remains."

"Sounded a lot like Carter to me," he answered, sliding the gun from her head to her neck, where the Gua'old lived. "Give me one good reason, Artemis. I know where you people keep your sarcophagus. I can kill you and still bring Sam back."

"Nothing of the host remains. We die together our love."

Jack tensed against the bullet he knew was coming, only to feel one painful sensation instead of the other. Instead of hot metal tearing into him, it was electricity, carried down the barrel of the gun pressed against his stomach and up that of the one against her neck. He fell at roughly the same moment Artemis did, closing his eyes as gentle hands bore him to the floor.

"It's okay, Jack," Daniel murmured, making him comfortable and looking up at Jonas who had dropped the Zat immediately and moved to catch Sam whom he was cradling against his chest at present. "We've freed the others and the palace and Stargate are secure."

Jonas' contribution was for Artemis' ears alone, a quiet, "Bet you didn't see _that_ coming."

"Jonas?" Sam whispered weakly. The momentary shock had forced Artemis to abandon supremacy. For now, at least.

"It's okay. You're going to be fine. Sorry," he added as he quickly restrained her.

As he was doing that, Daniel was leaning over Teal'c, shaking him awake. "Hey, you okay?"

"I will recover," the Jaffa assured him. "What of Major Carter?"

"The Tokra are going to try to get that thing out of her."

Teal'c nodded weakly, then frowned up at Daniel. "Explain your presence here. You were ordered to remain behind."

"Yeah, well, the General changed his mind," Jonas answered, shrugging. As Artemis reemerged and started struggling, he deftly produced a syringe and emptied it into Sam's arm. She soon went limp.

"Let me guess," Jack groaned, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. "Vision?"

He had not had time to ask when the two had waged a near-suicidal assault on the cell that he and his men were being held in. There had been fighting to do and a Major to rescue.

Jonas gave a blithe shrug, rising and hefting Sam's body into his arms. At Jack's glare, he grinned. "Hey, I'm not going to be able to carry her _all_ the way back to the Gate. You can have her as soon as you recover from the Zat. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Just don't do it again," Jack groaned, hauling himself to his feet and following the other two.

.

"So the Tokra say that they'll have her back to us in a few days. Minus one uninvited guest," Janet announced, refilling Jonas' wine-glass. "No, Cassie," she added as the girl held up her water glass.

"Oh, come on, mom. It's _only_ toasting the fact that Sam's still alive and not one of _them_."

"She has a point, Janet."

Rolling her eyes at Jonas, Janet poured a small measure of wine into her daughter's glass. "And don't expect this to become a habit.

"I know, mom. I'm just glad that she's okay. I was worried."

"I think we all were," Jonas agreed, raising his glass. "So, let's drink tonight to one of the bravest women out there, to her speedy return to us, her full recovery, and... well, to whatever it is that makes Sam Sam."

Janet smiled and nodded. "Amen to that."

"It'll be good to have her back," Cassandra agreed, taking a sip of her wine and making a face. "Yuck."

Jonas smiled faintly, shaking his head.

"And it is officially _way_ past someone's bedtime," Janet announced, glancing at the clock. "Come on, Cassie, you have school tomorrow."

"God, you'd think I'd get a day off for having my best friend taken over by an alien..."

"You honestly expect me to put that into a note to the principle?" Janet asked with a mock-glare.

Cassandra smiled and rose, kissing each on the cheek in turn. "Night, mom. Bye, Jonas. It was good to see you again."

"You, too, Cass," he answered, hugging her.

He sighed softly as he watched her go. It would have been nice to have a little girl of his own to say good night to every night. He was starting to wonder if he would ever be allowed the luxury of a wife and children, though. Not when he found two women in the universe appealing. Especially not when one of them had her affections firmly engaged elsewhere and the other, sitting on her couch with him...

God, but the Fates could be cruel...

"You okay?" Janet asked.

Jonas nodded faintly, forcing a smile. "Just not looking forward to leaving all of you again, I guess." It was true, even if there was more to his low mood than that.

"Well, you should at least stay until the Tokra bring Sam back."

"Those quarters at the SGC--" he began, only to be interrupted.

"You can stay in my guestroom."

"Oh, I couldn't." He shook his head, startled and more than a little flustered by the invitation.

Janet raised an eyebrow. "Jonas, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Maybe I can even answer it," he answered with a crooked grin.

"The other day, when you kissed me. You... saw something, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I saw a brave, compassionate soul who would do anything to help those under her care." Jonas stared down into his wine-glass. "Sorry about that. It was out of line."

"No, it wasn't. Surprising: yes. Out of line: not really." She shrugged. "When I joined the Air Force, all I wanted was for people to stop looking at me like a woman and start looking at me like a soldier. But it's nice sometimes, too. Now I've been a soldier so long I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be a woman."

"Duties and obligations," Jonas sighed. "Wonderful things, aren't they?"

"Oh, yeah," came the sarcastic reply. "I'll miss you when you go, Jonas. I've missed our talks."

"So have I."

It was not lost on Janet that the younger man was still upset. Sighing, she slid across the couch and looped an arm around his shoulder. "She's going to be fine, Jonas."

"I know." He nodded.

"You could always tell her how you feel..."

"Not even if the Colonel weren't a factor. Besides, I don't feel how you think I feel. She's a dear friend, but it would be wrong to try to replace Sarah with her, too, just because they look alike. Sam is _not_ Sarah. And she has the potential to be happy some day. She could never be with me and we both know it."

"I'm sorry."

Jonas shrugged and the two lapsed into silence for some time. "I'm going to miss you," Jonas told her finally, sighing deeply.

"It won't be forever," Janet pointed out gently, startled by how upset he seemed about leaving.

"Nothing ever is. But some things are more long-term than others, too. I should go now."

Janet sighed. "Jonas, you saw something else, didn't you?"

"No," he lied. "I just... God, you're beautiful, you know that? Inside _and_ out. And if I can be blunt, your husband was an idiot."

"No shit," Janet muttered, shaking her head. She looked up abruptly as the rest of Jonas' statement sunk in. "You think I'm beautiful?"

He shrugged apologetically, nodding. "Sorry."

"For complimenting me?"

"For a lot of things." He rose, pulling her to her feet and into a hug. "I should go now," he repeated, pressing his lips to her cheek.

"Stay the night, Jonas. You've had a lot to drink. You should be driving."

"That the only reason you want me to stay?" he asked, blushing bright red as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He _had_ had too much to drink, obviously.

"Maybe. I'll leave that ball in your court. You know where the guestroom is and you know where to find me if you need anything. Night, Jonas."

The young Kelwonan watched her go with wide eyes, wondering how to proceed from there. One too many drinks, one tempting offer, one ugly set of facts...

Shaking his head, he left the living room, bypassing the guest bedroom in favor of a far more inviting one.

.

Sam came awake with a gasp, horrified to once more find herself on a hard metal surface.

"Hey, take it easy," Jonas' voice soothed. "Hey, nurse, could you get the Colonel?"

She opened her eyes slowly, moaning.

"Headache? I can get Janet. She should still be awake."

"She didn't sleep here again?"

"I tried to stop her. Don't worry. She's slept in her own bed the last three or four nights."

_Three or four?_ "How long was I gone?"

"Five days," Jonas answered apologetically. "A lot's happened." He looked up as Jack entered the infirmary and started in their direction. "I'll let the Colonel fill you in," he added, kissing her cheek and giving her hand a squeeze as he rose. "You know where to find me if you need me. Bye, Sam."

"Do you have to leave so soon?"

"I wish I didn't. But I'm needed. Things are flaring up in Council."

She nodded reluctantly. "Don't be a stranger."

"Don't you be one, either."

"Jonas, thank you."

Nodding, he gave her another kiss on the cheek, then started for Janet's office. She sat up abruptly at his entrance.

"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't. Is she..."

"She's awake, talking to the Colonel. She's herself again."

"Good." Janet smiled faintly, nodding. "Hey, you... mind if I visit some time?"

"_Any_ time," Jonas assured her, pulling her into a hug. "I'll miss you," he whispered.

"I'll visit when I can. And you don't have to be a stranger, either."

"I'll try not to be," he promised, tightening his hold on her. "Don't ever change, okay?"

"Jonas, do you..."

"Yes. Yes, I do. And if I weren't needed so badly on my world, if it weren't _my_ mess to clean up, I would _not_ go back." He shrugged. "Problem is that I am and it is, you know?"

"I hate long-distance relationships," she sighed. Half a galaxy apart. It hardly got more long-distance than _that._

"Well, don't consider yourself spoken for or anything if something more stable comes along. I'll understand. Just... I want you to be happy, Janet."

"Something'll work itself out. These things always do."

"But not always in the ways we foresee," Jonas sighed, shaking his head. "Janet, I want to thank you for everything." He kissed her tenderly. "Don't be a stranger."

She nodded, hanging on to him for a few more minutes before resigning herself to the inevitable. "Walk you to the Gate?" she offered.

Jonas sighed softly and nodded, knowing he would not see her again and hating it. "I'd like that."

.

"You okay?" Jack asked Sam gently after he had filled her in on the details of her rescue, Janet's reintroduction of the retrovirus, the help the Tokra had given her, the vengeance the System Lords had taken after they had somehow mysteriously found out about Apollo's plans, that Daniel and Teal'c were currently relocating the entire prison-population of Delphi. minus Calpurnia who had been sent beack to Delphi shortly before the System Lords had arrived.

"It hurts."

"I'll get Janet," he offered, rising.

"No." Sam shook her head, catching his hand in hers. "It's not that kind of pain." She sighed softly. "I thought it was bad with Jolinar... I didn't understand. I couldn't have. This was... oh, God, sir. If you could know what she..."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, squeezing her hand. Sighing, he reached up and wiped away the solitary tear making its way down her cheek.

"It's like she wanted to destroy everything good or pure that could possibly remind me of life before her!" Sam cried, shaking her head. "Teal'c, Daniel, _you_..." She trailed off, not wanting him to know what Artemis' plans for him had been. He already had nightmares about Baal. She was not about to add the twist to them where _she_ was the one repeatedly torturing him to death.

"It's okay, Carter."

"I need to get out of here," she announced abruptly, struggling to rise. "I..."

"Carter," he said firmly, rising and pushing her back into the bed. "It's okay. It's _over_."

"It'll _never_ be over..."

"You're strong. You can fight this. She's gone. She didn't make it. She can never hurt you again," Jack assured her.

"Get me out of here," she pled.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Topside. I... I want to see the sun, just the one of them..." That way she would _know_. Delphi had two suns. She had to see that single one.

Jack nodded his understanding and helped her to her feet. "Okay. Come on. Janet'll probably be awhile saying goodbye to Jonas." At her confused look, he shrugged. "Guess they're an item now."

"Good. They deserve to be happy. Especially Jonas. He's had a lot of heart-ache."

"He's a good kid. He saved our lives."

"I remember. He was right. I _didn't_ see it coming." She smiled weakly up at him as they stepped onto the elevator. "Too much time with you last year, sir. He's turning into a smart-ass."

"Good for him." Jack smiled down at her.

They spent the rest of the elevator ride in silence and ignored the looks the guards were giving the hospital-gown clad woman as the two made their way to one of the compounds many wooded areas. Sam stared at the setting sun with a smile, inhaling deeply. Just the one...

"It was like a nightmare," she said after awhile.

"So how do you cope? How do you forget?" Jack agreed, nodding. "I have a few of those experiences under my belt."

"Probably more than I ever will," she answered quietly, bowing her head. "Worse, too."

"Don't do that, Sam," he sighed.

Her head shot up at his casual use of his first name, as well as the compassion and affection in his tone.

"No matter how much pain anyone else has been in, it doesn't change how much you were in. It doesn't change how much you're in now." He gave her an understanding smile and squeezed her shoulder. "Maybe we should get back. Janet'll go ballistic if she realizes you're not still in the infirmary."

"I don't care. It's so beautiful up here..."

"I take walks up here sometimes at night."

"You do?"

"Sometimes you need other people. Sometimes it helps to be alone."

"I don't want to be alone right now. I can't." She shook her head.

"Then it's a good thing you aren't," he murmured, steering her deeper into the woods. "This is a good place to sit," he added, gesturing towards a fallen tree.

"Thank you, sir." She smiled up at him and sat down, her smile widening slightly as he sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Dawn may be a long way off, Carter, but the nightmare's over."

She looked up at him, startled, wondering if he knew how eloquent the statement had been. He usually eschewed even the pretence of eloquence, preferring to be an abrasive, sardonic smart-ass. At least in public.

"You're going to be okay," he promised. "A lot of people care about you and'll do anything to get you through this."

"I appreciate it, sir," she whispered, leaning against his arm.

"We'll get you through this," he promised again, squeezing Sam's shoulder and leaning into her as well. "You're okay," he promised, wrapping his other arm around her as well. "You're going to be okay."

Sighing softly, Sam closed her eyes and nodded, gratefully drawing support from him. Part of her had doubted that she would _ever_ get over the events of the past month. That part was effectively quelled by her absolute faith in her CO, her friend.

Dawn was a long way off, but the nightmare was over.

She would be okay. They _all_ would, by working together through the hard times, laughing together in the good times, and drawing strength from one another always.

Exactly as it had always been. Exactly as it always _would_ be...

**The End**


End file.
